The history of religion. A rational account of the true religion

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THE

HISTORY OF RELIGION.

A EATIONAL ACCOUNT

THE TRUE RELIGION.

JOH^ EYELYN,

AUTHOR OF " SYLVA," ETC.

NOTV FIKST PUBLISHED FROM THE OKIOINAL MS. IN THE LIBKART
AT TVOTTOIf.

"I am verily persuaded that errors shall not be imputed to them as sin, who use
such measm-es of industry in tinding Trnth, as human prudence and ordinary dis-
cretion (their abilities and opportunities, their distractions and hindrances, and all
other things considered) shall advise ihem to."— Chillingwoeth.

EDITED, WITH NOTES,

Bv The REVD. R. M. EV ANSON, B.A.

IX TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.

LONDON:
HENKif G. BOHN, YORK STKEET, COVENT GARDEN.
1859.
H

TO

HIS GRACE
THE DUKE OF BEAUFORT,

THESE VOLUMES,

FROM THE PEN OF AN ILLUSTRIOUS WRITER,

IN TOKEN OF ESTEEM,

ARE, WITH HIS GRACE'S PERMISSION,

RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED

BT HIS OBLIGED AND FAITHFUL SERVANT,

THE EDITOR.

EDITOR'S PEEFACE.

" He, being dead, yet speaketh.''

After a peaceful slumber of nearly two cen-
turies in the Wotton Library, tbe original manu-
script from which this work is printed was last
year brought into light and notice by the pub-
lication of the " Life of Mrs. Godolphin," from
the pen of the same Author. This circum-
stance directed fresh attention to the collection
of manuscripts still in the possession of his
representative, W. J. Evelyn, Esq., M.P., at
the family-seat in Surrey, by whose permission
the fruit of his literary labours, in a new and
most important department, is now, for the
first time, > given to the world. It is but due
to the Publisher to relate, that it was mainly
owing to his suggestions that the manuscript
was carefully examined; and though, perhaps
from its bulk, the grave theological character of

vi editor's preface.

its contents, and the exceeding minuteness of
the writing, it seems to have possessed few
charms for the eyes of those who hitherto have
been permitted to inspect the Wotton manu-
scripts, yet, upon patient investigation, it proved
to be a work of considerable learning and re-
search ; and, being partly devoted to the exami-
nation of doctrines then current or opposed, was
thought not ill adapted to a controversial age —
nay, in some measure, calculated to soften the
peculiar prejudices of our times ; to lead men to
allow that all catholicity of mind is not Ro-
manism ; nor attachment to the pure teaching of
the English Church incompatible with unqua-
lified rejection of Romish en'or; nor Christian
charity of necessity violated by a calm and fear-
less exhibition and condemnation of the fallacies
of dissent.

To this end, the well-known piety of the
^^uthor, coupled with the trying times in which
he lived, must greatly contribute. Himself a
layman, he is free from suspicion of priestcraft.
His religious attachment to the Church of his
Baptism is no fair-weather conformity in her

EDITOR S PREFACE. VU

sunny hours, but is manifested by firm allegiance
in her days of darkness and distress, when he
who owned his Spiritual Mother was not exempt
from danger of proscription, imprisonment, or
even exile. At such a period of her history, John
Evelyn, a gentleman of fortune, with many dear
ties to warp his judgment astray, showed rare
strength and rectitude of principle, in choosing
rather, at aU hazard, through faith in her Divine
mission, to heed the pure light of an obscured
and persecuted Church, (unhke some who would
desert her in the hour of peril) than to bask
with the many in the wild red glare of fana-
ticism wherewith the land was overspread.

Nor was his fideUty without its reward, so to
speak ; for he Hved to see her restored, if not to
the fulness of her rays, at least to her former
elevated position, whence she might engage once
more, under accumulated difficulties, it is true,
in dispelling either the mists of infidelity that
followed by re-action the gross hypocrisy of the
Interregnum, or the chUUng indifference to
" things unseen" so largely caught up from the
pernicious example of a dissolute Court.

viii editor's PEEFACE.

In confirmation of these remarks, Ave have

only to extract a few passages from his Diary

of the time. In a foot-note to the title-page of the

manuscript, we are informed that this work was

"begun in the year 1657, when the Church of

England was in persecution ;" and about that date

are the following entries : —

" .3rd August (1656). I went to London to receive the
Blessed Sacrament, the first time the Church of England
was reduced to a Chamber and Conventicle, so sharp
was the persecution. The Parish Churches were filled
with sectaries of all sorts, blasphemous and ignorant
mechanics usurping the pulpits every where."'

In the following year he writes under date
December 25th,

" Christmas-day. I went to Loudon with my wife, to ce-
lebrate Christmas-day, Mr. Gunning preaching in Exeter
Chapel, on Micah, vii., 3. Sermon ended, as he was giving
us the Holy Sacrament, the chapel was surrounded with
soldiers, and all the communicants and assembly surprised
and kept prisoners by them, some in the house, others
carried away. It fell to my share to be confined to a
room in the house, where yet I was permitted to dine
with the master of it, the Countess of Dorset, Lady
Hatton, and some others of quality who invited me. In
the afternoon came Colonel Whalley, Goffe, and others
from Whitehall, to examine us one by one ; some they
' Evelyn's Diary, new edition, vol. i., p. 316.

EDITOR S PEEFACE. IX

committed to the Marshal, some to prison. When I
came before them, they took my name and abode ; exa-
mined me why, contrary to the ordinance made that
none should any longer observe the superstitious time
of the Nativity, (so esteemed by them) I durst offend,
and particularly be at Common Prayers, which they told
me was but the Mass in English, and particularly pray
for Charles Stuart, for which we had no Scripture. I
told them we did not pray for Charles Stuart, but for all
Christian Kings, Princes, and Governors. They replied,
In so doing we prayed for the King of Spain too, who
was their enemy and a Papist ; with other frivolous and
ensnaring questions and much threatening ; and, finding
no colour to detain me, they dismissed me with much
pity of my ignorance. These were men of high flight,
and above ordinances, and spake spiteful things of our
Lord's Nativity. As we went up to receive the Sacra-
ment, the miscreants held their muskets against us, as if
they would have shot us at the Altar, but yet suffering
us to finish the office of Communion, as perhaps not
having instructions what to do in case they found us in
that action.'"'

Again, after the Restoration and the return
of the Church of England from her captivity, his
mind is so impressed with the overpowering bad
example of the Court, and the general corruption
that followed thereupon, that he does not hesi-
tate to assign it as the chief cause of those signal

' Evelyn's Diary, new edition, vol. i., p. 323.

X editor's preface.

visitations, the Great Plague and Fire of London,

thus recorded in the Diary : — '■

"October ]0 (1666). This day was ordered a general
fast throuo-h the nation, to humble us on the late dread-
f'ul conflagration, added to the plague and war, the most
dismal judgments that could be inflicted ; but which in-
deed we highly deserved, for our prodigious ingratitude,
burning lusts, dissolute Court, profane and abominable
lives; under such dispensations of God's continued favour
in restoring Church, Prince, and People, from our late
intestine calamities, of which we were altogether un-
mindful, even to astonishment."

The result of such, or rather similar feehngs,
was, in 1657, the commencement of the present
work, the scope and design whereof, as well as
the motives that led to the undertaking, are told
most strikingly in the Author's Preface, to which
the Reader is especially referred. In the earlier
chapter of the First Volume there will be foimd
coincidences of thought, and even expression,
with writers who have subsequently handled the
same topics ; as, for instance, when treating of the
moral government of the world, passages occur
closely resembling the ai-guments of Bishop
Butler, in his Analogy of Religion, who wrote
' Evelyn's Diary, new edition, vol. ii., p. 17.

EDITOR S PREFACE. XI

it need hardly be said, in the followiag century.
In arguing, also, from Natural to Revealed Reli-
gion, Mr. Evelyn's illustrations are frequently
identical with those of the modern Paley. It is
not, of course, pretended that such subjects are
handled ia the same masterly way as by those
eminent writers, who concentrated their mental
forces upon, perhaps, a single branch of the many
topics of this comprehensive Treatise; they are
merely alluded to as further evidence, if any
were wanted, of the versatility and originality
of the Author's intellectual powers. In the
Second Volume, wherein he professes to explain
the true doctrines of Holy Scripture, and of the
Church of England, the chief interest attaching
to it will be found to consist in its value as an
impartial interpretation of her Articles and
Liturgy ; conveyed, too, in a manner which shows
he was not propounding new views, but merely
stating them as understood by her members in
his time. The inferences that may be drawn
from the perusal of this portion of the work are
too palpable to need comment here.

It remains only to give a brief description of

xii editor's preface.

the manuscript itself, in order to explain how
far its integrity has been preserved, in preparing
it for the press. From the remarkable accuracy
of the writing, as well as from portions of the
rough draft being found with it, it appears to be
a second copy, and by the Author himself, with
a view to pubhcation ultimately. This is partly
corroborated by the close of his Preface, where,
alluding to his " Adversaria," or collection of
extracts from different authors (in the previous
page termed his " Controversial Chapter), he
says that " they [i.e., the Extracts] were entered
promiscuously, and without that care I should
have used, had I then designed them for this
Treatise, or ever to appear in public."

This " Adversaria," stitched up with the MS.,
and sufficient to fill a volume in itself, it was
not deemed ad^dsable to publish, as forming no
integral part of the work, and consisting, with
few exceptions, of quotations from authors now
in the hands of all. Two extracts, however
have been given in the form of an Appendix
being to all appearance in his own languao-e
and on important topics. After this second copy

EDITOR S PREFACE. XUl

was completed, tlie margin furnishes proof of its
revision by the Author himself, correcting even
trifling orthographical errors, and, to judge from
the different colour of the ink, at diflferent
periods of his life. On a separate paper among
the Wotton manuscripts the following memo-
randum certainly occurs — " Things I would
write out fair, and reform;" and "A Rational
Account of the True Eeligion, or a History of it,
with a packet of Notes belonging to it," forms
one of the list.^ But this probably refers to the
fresh ideas, inserted during revision, in the mar-
gin, which, doubtless, had it been published in
his lifetime, he would have embodied in the
work, but, in the hands of another unwilling to
do violence to the text, must be suffered to
descend into the notes. It appears, also, from
the original title-page of the manuscript, that
the Author was in doubt about what name he
should give it. Evae^eia first, and this is scratched
out ; next @pri<rK€ia occurs, after the words " His-
tory of Religion." It should be mentioned, also,
that lower down on the page he inserts, after the

' This " packet of notes" cannot be found.

xiv editor's preface.

last title, " A Rational Account of the True Reli-
gion," the following summary of its contents : —

Asserting
The most ancient to be the only True and Best : The
Jewish, why, and how changed ? Why not that of the
Gentile ? or Mahometan, but the Christian f Why not
any of the

Christian Sects, but the Catholic Reformed ?

Collected for the
Settling and Establishment of my own Choice.

The remainder is as given in the title-page of
these volumes. Thus it will be seen that the
integrity of the work has been preserved in all
material points, the " Adversaria" alone being
omitted, and of course palpable repetitions, not
unfrequent, as might be supposed, in a manu-
script which seems to have occupied the last
thirty years of an active and well-employed life.*^
Occasionally, too, some trifling orthographical
errors have been corrected, the very long para-
graphs subdivided, and the titles of the sections,
where omitted, gathered from the subject and
prefixed. At the request of the Publisher, the

' 1657 is the date of its commencement, and 1683 is written on
the manuscript as the current year, in order to verify one of the
Author's dates, during the progress of the work.

EDITOR S PEEFACE. XV

spelling has been changed (it being uncertain,
and the work sufficiently abstruse), and a few
notes added for the convenience of the general
reader, Avith translations, when not given in sub-
stance in the text, for the benefit of those unac-
quainted with the languages in which the quota-
tions occur ; such foreign matter being invariably
distinguished from what belongs to the Author
by inverted commas and brackets: whence it
appears that little has been demanded of the
Editor beyond patient transcription of the MS. ;
while, in order to ensure its integrity, even this
labour has been shared by an able amanuensis,
Mr, Hook, whose co-operation proved most ser-
viceable, especially in collation, and deciphering
passages that would have puzzled any eyes but
those well versed in such work.^

In conclusion, it is earnestly hoped that good
may result from presenting these volumes to
the world; that His Name may be hallowed
whose truth they uphold; and that they may
find their way to the hearts of aU who give them

' A strong magnifying-glass wa3 in constant requisition for the
marginal notes.

xvi editor's preface.

perusal. And if the spirits of the departed (to
speak with all reverence) are at all cognizant
of human affairs, we may conceive it not un-
pleasing to their Author, after a lapse of two
centuries, to return, as it were, for a season,
unfettered by " the body of this death," to in-
struct and admonish " them that are alive ;" to be
instrumental, it may be, with the Divine blessing,
in adding fresh numbers to the " great cloud of
witnesses, the spirits of just men made perfect"

above.

The Editor.

June, 1850.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

Living Lu an age wherein religion, piety, and
even common honesty were made to subserve
the ends and interests of dominion and ambition,
or the advantiiges of some private party, and by
men of all persuasions affecting empire, there
was nothing left unattempted to support their
avarice and pride. Fundamental laws and esta-
bhshments being subverted ; princes (who should
protect them) miu-dered; the most solemn oaths
violated; churches robbed; and the afflictions
which the most innocent suffered of spoil, evil,
imprisonment, and death itself, cried up as the
effects of the zeal of a godly party. Ignorance
and enthusiasm, hypocrisy and treason, uni-
versally reigning, and that whosoever did not
receive this mark in his forehead, and not pros-
titute himself, soul and body, to propagate the
interests of the most sacrilegious and unrighte-
ous acquisitions, (that ever a rebellious and
disobedient people mahciously and wantonly un-

VOL. I. b

xviil author's peeface.

dertook) were looked upon as traitors, declared
or clandestine enemies to the public weal. That
men of aU rehgions (or fancies, rather), Jews,
Socinians, Anabaptists, Antinomians, Independ-
ents, Quakers, Pagans, and (what is worse)
Atheists, and a thousand new sects and denomi-
nations, were protected and encouraged under
notion of New Lights, Perfectionists, a Godly
Party, and persons above ordinances, freely
preaching, printing, and promoting their extra-
vagant doctrines, and had advocates to plead for
them ; that, whUst the waters were troubled, the
crafty fishers might cast in their hooks, and
satiate themselves with spoil and booty : when
I perceived the soberest pretenders counter-
mined one the other for the Supreme Power;
that even the very sanctions and laws of Nature
as well as of nations were violated; perjury
justified and rewarded; Christian churches, and
the folds of the true flock, made draught houses,
and stables of horses and dens of wild beasts;
the " calves" set up, and the hierarchy usurped
by every blind leader; Scripture profaned and
perverted; the tribiuials and seats of justice
corrupted; the aged dishonoured; that there
were no commandments, no creed, no liturgy, no

AUTHOR S PREFACE. XIX

baptism, no catechism, no sacraments, no legal
marriages, no discipline in the Church ; that the
schools were interdicted, the universities clouded
and threatened ; Christian feasts aboKshed ;
bishops and priest pronounced Antichristian ; in
sum, "when there was no king in Israel, but
every one did what was right in his own eyes."

And when I saw that for aU this everything
prospered which these men did, and that any
rehgion was good but the old Christian, which
taught men obedience to princes, reverence to
antiquity, order and discipline in the Church,
frequent communion, orthodox doctrine, accord-
ing to the undoubted tenor of Sacred Scripture
and universal consent of the purest ages; and
that aU reason and learning was not carnal ; nor
all decency, superstition; nor aU candour, and
fidelity, and innocency of life, the efiect of moral
conscience only, but the power of God, and the
result of a gracious education. .

When, on the other side, again, I considered
that, after God had restored the laws, and
brought back the captivity in so stupendous a
manner, as next to that of the Jews from Ba-
bylon, there is not to be found in history, sacred
or profane, a more wonderful deliverance of a

b2

XX author's peeface.

nation in any age; and that, after all these
mercies (yea, even miracles) and signal revolu-
tions, people (though with less hypocrisy) grew
more ungrateftil and impiously atheistical, sen-
sual, revengeful, and not so much as regarding
a form of religion ; that the princes and great
men, who ought to have been examples of virtue
to others, were abandoned to aU manner of
luxury, open and avowed adiilteries ; the clergy
despised, the prelates under, afi'aid of denouncing
against these enormities; the gentry dissolute,
theatres profane, the people libertine, and that,
indeed, there was no face of sincere religion
amongst us : when, I say, I beheld all this, and
that in other matters men ascribed so much to
nature, senseless matter, craft and force; that,
in a word (as the great Apostle expresses it of
the heathen),' "as they did not like to retain
God m their knowledge, God gave them over to
a reprobate mmd, to do those things which are
not convenient, being filled with all um-ighteous-
ness, fornication," &c. For all this, to my great
sorrow, I was witness of: when, I say, I beheld
all this, "my feet were almost gone, my tread-
ings had well nigh slipped,^ and I began seriously

' Rom,, i., 28-32. " Psalm, Ixxiii., 2.

AUTHOR 8 PREFACE. XXI

to consider some time with myself, whether,
in truth, all that which had been taught us con-
cerning God, and rehgion, and honour, and con-
science, were not mere chimeras and impostures
contrived by our forefathers, crafty men m their
generation, and but now again resumed by as
subtle a race as they, to amuse the credulous,
superstitious, or less discerning people; whilst
the great and pohte ones of the world believed
nothing at all of it, whose actions had so httle
affinity with their pretensions, and all that they
yet held forth of the greatest and most refined
sanctity.

These thoughts put me at last iipon a serious
resolution of a more accurate and sedulous in-
quiry, and now no longer to acquiesce in what I
had taken in by education, and other general
notions concerning religion, which, by many and
dangerous errors, I suspected, might be propa-
gated to posterity, and which (the more I sought)
I found had not only prevailed with, and per-
verted wise and learned men, persons of all ages,
sexes, and professions, but even whole nations
and countries, of which some were wicked and
barbarous, as not only do their own histories
make out, but the present idolatry, superstition,

xxii author's preface.

fanaticism, and brutishness, which do still obtain
in divers parts of the world to this period.

The thing, therefore, which iu order hereto I
thought myself first concerned to examine, was
not with so much expectation of investigating
many new arguments of what I was in search,
or to divert others with fine disputes and specu-
lations ; but so to discipline and reduce the scat-
tered notions and materials which books and
discourses, and the reason and moment of the
thing, had from time to time furnished me withal
(but which had till now lam confusedly about
me), into some kind of method; that, upon im-
partial view of their strength, and summing up
their force and evidence, I might judge and de-
termine of the issue, and accordingly consult
what party to take, and resolve once for all what
course to pursue for the futiu'e, and so to settle
my fluctuating thoughts, the best and most pru-
dently I could, in the generation I was to serve,
and, as far as I was able, not be wanting to my-
self for the obtaining that felicity we all aspire
after, if, at least, any such thing there were;^

^ " Si enim post-mortem nihil sumus, profecto stultissimi est
hominis non huic vitse consulere ut sit quam divina et commodis
omnibus plena." — Laciantius.

authok's preface. xxiii

and if not, that I might extricate my spirit
from those perplexities, and at once emancipate
myself from the doubts and emotions which the
belief of an eternal being hereafter, designed
to infinite happiness, or doomed to endless and
intolerable misery, did contiauaUy expose us to ;
either of which, if I were able to accomphsh
(by laying education, custom, superstition, par-
ties, and prejudices aside, and deahng clearly and
ingenuously with myself), I then concluded I
might pass my life with less regret and better
resolution for the futxire, as long as nature and
my constitution would suffer me, whatever other
circumstances happened, which I was to encoun-
ter or conciliate with the best prudence I could,
and with this satisfaction to sit down and ac-
quiesce.^

In pursuance, therefore, of this weighty enter-
prise, I first set myself to examine what argu-
ment seemed with the greatest probabUity to
evince the notion of a Supreme Being : in sum,
whether there were indeed any such thing as a
God at all ! For, when that should be well

' Such a design I find mentioned by the learned and eloquent
Dr. Sprat, Bishop of Rochester, and to have been reflected on by
that incomparable wit and excellent person, Mr. Cowley (whilst
he Uved), my most worthy friend.

XXIV AUTHOR S PREFACE.

cleared up in the affirmative, whetlier he took
any further cognizance of us, or not, I began
soon to be convinced that He was to be adored
of His creatures, and served after His own ap-
pointment. And, supposing this should yet be
uncertain, that nevertheless it was not only
reasonable, but the highest jirudence to do it;
since, if a God, He must needs be just, and do
righteously; which, consisting in rewards and
punishments to those who deserve them, the
li^Ting a virtuous and pious life must needs be
transcendently preferable to a vicious and dis-
orderly; since, whether there were a Deity or
no, it were but what a mse man would choose
for the ease and felicity of it : religion being so
gi'ave, serious, and so useful a thing, and of so
vast importance, that, if it be not true, all man-
kind have reason to wish it were; and in case
there be such a God (besides the baseness and
inconvenience of vicious habits here), to hazard
His displeasure and appendant deserved misery,
and put it to adventm-e, were madness, and alto-
gether intolerable.

A God, therefore, being found out. His attri-
butes would of necessity follow; and I was next
to inquire after what manner He would be

AUTHOR S PREFACE. XXV

served, what worship and rites He expected;
which being once so happy as to attain, my
search (I concluded) was at an end, and all that
depended upon it; matters of necessary belief
being, I supposed, much easier than practice:
for it is not the being christened, reckoned a
Protestant, or denominated of a party, that will
save one, as if it worked as a charm or spell,
we know not how, or why, whether minding it
or no, but by our improvement and exercise of
what we possess; there being no word in the
whole Scriptures more certain than that without
holiness no one shall see God.

Most will tell us they believe the gospel for a
most certain truth, nay, profess they would even
die for it, till they meet with something that
crosses them, or goes against their interest, and
then they secretly hope it is not so. Christ's
death (as one says) seems to serve, not to de-
stroy sin out of the world, but Christianity itself;
when the Scripture tells u.s plainly, that He is
become the author of salvation to them only who
obey Him^i and that He will come in flaming fire
to render vengeance on them who obey Him not.
What should then induce any one to believe that
he shall be saved, whether he believes or serves

XXVI AUTHOR'S PEEFACE.

Him not? So that a necessity of living well, I
saw, was consequent to truth; and this esta-
blished, what was to be superstructed, I saw,
would not be difficult ; there being in the world,
and especially the Scriptures, and other authen-
tics (the veracity whereof would fall in with my
former disquisitions), such plentiful materials, so
much light, so clear decisions, so many and preg-
nant instances, as were sufficient to guide any
humble, sober, and rational person, who was not
blinded with avarice or ambition, perverted with
pleasure and sensuality, impatience, sloth, super-
stition, or the like prejudices and prepossessions,
from which I so earnestly laboured to vindicate
and redeem myself; or, if possibly I should not
always hit upon the right (holding the founda-
tion), I could not but think, and indeed conclude,
that, if there were a God, He must be full of
goodness and pity, and therefore pardon all in-
vincible mistakes in searching after truth, when
they were not made invincible by our own negli-
gence.

Now, that this might not be my fault, I drew
the plan of my designed inquiry as ample and
comprehensive as I was able (as will be seen by
the many topics I have handled and traced from

AUTHOR S PREFACE. XXVll

divines, philosophers, pkilologers, historians, and
others), to evince the truth of what I was in
quest of; and therefore could not avoid repeat-
ing what others have done before me on this
subject, though not after the same method: and
if I have appeared somewhat prolix in asserting
the immortality of the soul, it was what I deemed
of greatest consequence, and my drift aU along,
to discuss the nature of that principle, how in
man it differs from the animal and sensual, and
to give myself a ftJler survey of men's opinions
concerning that so momentous and abstruse a
point ; since upon that alone depended the whole
stress of this inquiry, and in truth of all ve have
of precious and worthy our solicitude in this
umbratile and transitory passage.

In the mean time, I was glad to find that in-
famous book, Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, so
handsomely perstringed ; it being certainly the
product of an author very far from any sense of
religion, and a wretched obstacle to the searchers
of holy truth. But he is not alone; we have
others nearer home (besides Spinosa, Bruno,
Cardan, &c.), deifying the power of matter and
the laws of Nature as divine decrees, to invaH-
date (as much as in them lies) the veneration

xxviii author's preface.

of Scripture, upon the pretence of the uncertainty
of those oracles, the supernatural inspirations,
visions, and favoui-s ; and that the prophets and
great men of those times might possibly be en-
thusiasts, or delu-ious and mistaken, and so,
what they deliver down to us doubtful or pre-
carious : in sum, making religion a mere figment,
and that (as well as man himself) but an engine,
and by discarding all natural justice, goodness,
and charity, and resolve it into brutish force.

This, as to the laws of empu-e, is the language
which a man of great name,^ lately come amongst
us, teaches his disciples, and perhaps what these
bold heroes would have published, yet in plainer
terms, if they durst speak out, who have already
debauched and rmned a great many of the vola-
tile and less wary sort. Bu.t they are all so
abundantly baffled, that none, save the raw and
fantastical wits, and those who have read little
and thought less of ancient and solid learning,
and are disposed to embrace the pleasures of
sense and affect singularity, can possibly suffer
themselves to be perverted, without being miser-
ably depraved and shattered in their imderstand-
ing. For the Christian rehgion, and the base it
' Hobbs.

author's preface. xxix

stands upon, seems to me so perspicuous, and
their reasonings so false, that there is no merit
in beheving it. So as none, save those deter-
mined Atheists who maliciously shut their eyes
to the light, can avoid it.

But the world is now come to that pass, or
rather to that profaueness, as to religion, that
as it is a reproach not to he called a Christian,
so it is a greater to he one. Our heaux and
esprits forts make a mockery of the most ve-
nerable tmths, and deride aU piety, to save
their reputation. It is enough to have religion
in our creed, not in om' hearts. In the mean
time, there is nothing which these triflers have
offered, or the impostors whom they follow,
but what the old Heresiarchs and most pestilent
of the Atheists have long since broached ; as is
abundantly seen in Irenseus, Arnobius, St. Au-
gustine (a wit infinitely superior to the most
pretending of these), Justin Martyr, TertuUian,
&c., and of later times ; and since the same poi-
son has diffused itself in this age (as forerunners
of great confusion), by the incomparable Gro-
tius, Bishop Andrews, Drs. Hammond, Jackson,
StiUingfleet, Barrow, &c., in express treatises and
other works of inestimable value, not omitting

XXX author's preface.

those elaborate pieces (printing since the writing
hereof) of Drs. Cudworth, Cumberland, Patrick,
Parker, &c., and of those abroad, the learned
Huetius, Johannes Batalerius, and innumerable
others.

It is when one has thoroughly read and well
digested the ancient and later writers whom I
have named, and who have obtained the suf-
fi-ages of sixteen hmidi-ed years, that one shall
be fit to encounter and pronounce concerning
these impudent sophisters, who deny matter of
fact with so steeled a front : men they are, who,
upon pride of theii' wit, and boldness of speaking
things profanely, (in a most abandoned age) are
held in estimation amongst those drolls, ignorant
and slavish sycophants, who catch at everything
that may serve to charm the serpent of natural
conscience that is perpetually stinging and lash-
ing their profligate lives and ugly crimes with
somethmg which makes vice and sensuality un-
easy to them, when they chance to give them-
selves the seldom leisure of thinking seriously,
and as they would msh they had, when they
come to die.

But put the case that there were no such
thing, at last, as reward for vu-tue, or punish-

AUTHOR S PREFACE. XXXI

ment for vice, a man shall lose nothing for
believing there is; and if there be, the infidel
is lost. They do not consider that we are sent
into these bodies of ours, and dignified with the
intellectual faculty of reason, for trial and proba-
tion ; that, after aU God has done for us, myste-
riously. Himself in person, and by his prophets,
apostles, and other extraordinary dispensations
in all ages, He expects that we should conform to
the rules and precepts He has dictated by them,
to the end that we may be worthy the life of God,
and that immense reward which He has reserved
for those obsequious servants of His, reverers of
His law and divine economy.

If there were no other proofs in the world, the
Scriptures themselves, describing the persons, the
non-secular interests of the authors, with the cir-
cumstances of their Hves, preaching, doctrines,
sufferings, and successes, among those learned
nations that were in full possession of all other
temporal advantages, it were sufficient to van-
quish all contradiction. But if for all this they
do not think it worth the while — wUl be wiser
than God, and adventure the hazard of a being so
perfect, and consummately happy, above all we
can imagine desirable to an intellectual creature

xxxii author's preface.

— and will put that upon chance for the gratify-
ing of then- sense so short a time, especially when
all that is requii'ed of us is but what a moral wise
man would choose, and many Pagans did so,
without any such certamty, or prospect of re-
ward and bliss to come : if, I say, men will hazard
a possible eternal and happy being for a possible
intolerable misery — the satisfactory and inward
pleasure of virtue, innocence, purity, beneficence,
and dominion over the passions — that sweet
serenity and tranquillity of mind, which alone
are (even in this life) antepasts of the Heavenly,
upon so transitory and uncertain fruition here,
pleasures that perish in the using, djong in their
hands — I cannot help it.

But, as for my own particular, I will always
pray tJiat vuj soul may not enter into their secret,
be they reputed never so great, subtle, learned,
and extraordinary in their generation. Nor does
this proceed from the pi'ejudices of education:
I have been exceedingly diligent (according to
my poor talent) to inform myself, and to exa-
mine the foundation whereon those have super-
structed, who have now stood unshaken as a
rock these five thousand years, malgre all the
force of men and devils, and will so continue

AUTHOE S PREFACE. XXXlU

to the world's end. And had I any thing
to bless Heaven for above the rest, (as I
have many) it would be verily for this — that I
am not in the least temptation to doubt, much
less disbeheve, any one article of our most holy
truth, for any thing that I have heard or read
from any of these magnificent and daring wits,
(real fops and confident triflers) and whom I look
upon with pity, and as set up by that haughty
and imposturous Spirit whom God permits to
exercise the sons of men, that those who escape
and are approved may be made manifest, and
receive an immortal reward.

POSTSCRIPT.

I do here likewise declare freely that I was
not able nor solicitous to put this discourse into
so new a dress, as that it should not appear how
confident I have been to make use of whatever
I found to my purpose. On the contrary, I have,
without any apology, transcribed whole periods
out of several authors, and challenge little to my-
self but the adjusting and putting my materials
into a fresh method and connexion, as might
best suit and comply with the design, whicli
was, to settle and satisfy mi/self; never pretend-

VOL. I. c

XXXIV AUTHOR S PREFACE.

ing to dress it for the public : not that I thought
it might not be very profitable as well for others,
but for that to render it so would require a
great deal of revising and polishing. Call it,
therefore, Analecta, or Collections, under certain
heads, rather than things digested into that order
which both the subject and matter were other-
wise highly capable of. In the controversial
chapter I have transcribed what in casual read-
ing I thought most apposite; and that without
any other method than reference to the table,
because they were to be only vouchers and
proofs upon occasion; and therefore cliiefly ap-
plicable to three or four of the later chapters :
and to this, besides Holy Scripture, and several
of the ancient ecclesiastical doctors and fathers,
whom I have purposely read, and with no small
industry, from the preaching of oiu" Blessed
Saviour and his apostles, down to the fifth and
sixth centuries — that is, as far as I had any glim-
mering of primitive light to direct me — I say,
besides these, I have recorded large contributions
from later foreigners, and many learned and
excellent divines of our own country, such as
Bishop Jewel, Pearson, Usher, BramhaU, Laud
"Walton, Taylor, Cosin, Lincoln, Drs. Thorndike

AUTHOR S PREFACE. XXXV

Re}niolcls, Field, Crackauthorp, Du ^loiilin, Cal-
vin, Stillingfleet, Cliillingworth, iSjc, and many
of our later London divines, and tlieir tracts
against Dissenters, Presbyterians, Independents,
&c. : nor did I neglect to peruse many histories,
tiva,tises, and controversies, published by persons
of all persuasions ; though I do not always charge
the margin with their names, which I acknow-
ledge to be a defect in my adversaria, where I
had first entered them promiscuously, without
that care T should have used had I then designed
them for this treatise, or ever to appear in public.

J. E.

c2

CONTENTS

OF

THE FIRST VOLUME.

PAGE

The Editor's Preface .....•• v
The Author's Preface xi, ii

CHAPTER I.
Whether there he a Deity and Supreme Being? — That there

is, proved:
Section I. By Universal Suffrages .... 1

n. By the Creation of the World . . .13

III. 1. By the Soul of Man.— 2. By the Novity of

the World 41

IV. By Providence and the Government of the

World . . . . . . G5

CHAPTER II.

What God and the Supreme Being is.

Section I. His Attributes — Trinity . . . .92

II. Of Angels and Jilinistering Spirits. — 1 . Their

Nature. — 2. Of their Name. — 3. Dignity. —
4. Abode.— 5. Office . . • .126
III. Of the Intellectual Soul . . • 148

XXXVlll

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER III.

Section I. That the Intellectual Soul is Immortal .

II. Resurrection . . . . •

Section III. A Future State after this Life

rV. An Account to be given of our Actions

V. Just Retribution ....

PAGE

. 176

. 196

. 203

. 207

. 211

Section

CHAPTER IV.
I. That if there be a God and Sovereign Being
who created all things, He is to he adored
and obeyed by his Creatures (especially by
Man, the Intellectual) with religious Wor-
ship ; not only as his Duty, but in order to
his Future State and Felicity .

253

Section

CHAPTER V.

I. Religion .....

. 260

II. Rehgious "Worship

. 265

III. Natural Religion, or, Theology .

. 267

rV. Conscience ....

. 278

v. Theists

. 282

VI. Atheists

. 288

CHAPTER VI.

Of the False, Pagan, and GentUe Religion.
Section I. Rise of Idolatry 302

n. Image Worship ..... 308

III. Pagan Philosophy . . . . .318

CHAPTER VII.

Of the Holy Scriptures and Oracles of God, which show us the
True Supernatural Religion and Sovereign Good.

Section I. 1. What is meant by Scriptures? — 2. Who
is the Author of them ? — 3. WTio were the
Penmen and Writers of them? . . 339

CONTENTS. XXXIX

PAGE

Section II. The Scriptures asserted to be the Oracles of
God. — 1 . By Prophecies. — 2. By Miracles. —

3. B}- their Preservation. — 4. By the Style. —
5. By their Consent and Harmony. — 6. By
the Matter and Subject. — 7. By the Effects
andDesign. — 8. By their Testimony. — 9. By
their Antiquity and Suffrage of Historians.

— 10. By their Traditions . . .348
Section III. 1. Of the Books. — 2. Copies. — 3. Editions. —

4. Translations 393

TV. 1. Interpretation of Scripture. — 2. Rule of

Faith 423

ERRATA.

VOL. I.

Page 73, note; for " eximaa'' read eximiae.

Page 127, note; for " praestantissimus," read prEestantissimis.

THE

TRUE RELIGION.

CH.IPTEE, I.i

WHETHER THERE BE A DEITY ASD SUPREJIE BEING ?

THAT THERE IS, PROVED

SECTION I. BY UNIVERSAL SUTTKAGES.

SECTION n. BY THE CREATION OF THE WORLD.

fPART I. BY THE SOUL OF MAN.
SECTION in. <

LpART n. BY THE NOVITY OF THE WORLD.

SECTION IV. BY PRO^^DENCE AND GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD.

SECTION I. BY UNIVERSAL SUEERAGES.
2w deca.

Although, amongst all the disquisitions and contro-
versies about Religion, this most certainly needs least
dispute and probation ; everything we see, and every-
thing that moves evincing it,'' so as to deny, or indeed

' Consult Dr. Tillotson, two first Sermons in his first part, fur
this Chapter, and the first concerning Atheists.

' See a Discourse of Natural and Revealed Religion in my brci-
ther's library at Wotton, sold at the 3 Pigeons, Inner Temple Gate.

VOL. I. U

2 THE TRUE EELIGION.

SO much as to question it, reproaches as well our common
sense as oiir reason; yet, forasmuch as some such
monsters there have been and yet are (at least, if one
may estimate by their lives and morals), in these last
and drees of times, I conceive it not amiss for me to
remove that rubbish, and at once to clear my way, by
calling to miad, and putting into method, some of those
irrefragable, though common arguments, produced for
proof.

Of the contents of this chapter, upon which the sub-
sequent Discourse is to be established —

The existence of a Deity is so much an innate and
fundamental principle, that not only Holy Scripture
makes it out, but all the wise and sober men in the
world, Heathens and others, at all times and in all places,
have taken it for granted. And therefore Moses, with-
out any further preamble, commences the sacred story
of the Creation, peremptorily and positively, as an un-
deniable effect of the Prime Cause, making not the least
doubt of the Author. And so we rightly begin our
Christian Symbol, " I believe in God, the Father Al-
mighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth," &c., as an indis-
putable notion, woven into the very contexture and
constitution of our Being, putting all argumentation to
silence. For, is it reasonable to imagine, that Nature
should put any false impressions into us repugnant to
those original principles she has so universally esta-
blished, namely, an irreluctant and free assent to such
truths as are the continual objects of our senses, as that
two and two make four, that the whole Is greater than

THE TRUE EELIGION. .3

the part, &c.? There are as certain and immutable truths
in jMorality as in Geometry and quantity, and were so
even before there was any creature to consider and ex-
amine them. For some conclusions are of themselves
so perspicuous and evident as to need no ratiocination
to induce our assent, even at first sight and hearing
only — I say, divers moral and intellectual truths, and
principles so connatural to us, as admit of no contradic-
tion. Everybody agrees that there is in our very nature
sentiments of right and wrong; to do as we would
be done by ; to revere our parents ; to be grateful to
our benefactors ; to clothe our bodies, and the like.
And there are secret and indelible perceptions of Im-
mortality, and of rewards and punishments hereafter,
and a conscience of guilt or inward satisfaction waiting
on all our actions. And these innate notions are not
the effects of education only ; but antecedent, and con-
nexed with the very constitution of our souls, and
evincing something extraordinary, and are the same
among all mankind, whose understandings are entire.

There is that within every one of us which sometimes
raises doubts, puts the question, thinks and reasons, and
certainly knows she does so (be it Mind, Soul, Reason,
or whatever principle), which is irresistibly obliged to
assent to those eternal verities as incontestable; and
there is a True and a False, a Just and Unjust in all
things and to all beings, and (maugre all our Hobbists),
that which is true and untrue in respect of Man is so
both to angels and to God himself.

And 80, in like manner, are the relations of perfec-

b2

4 THE TRUE RELIGION.

tion between ideas, immutable and fixed as the laws
of the Medes and Persians. For, granting that Educa-
tion be of wonderful force to make one man differ from
another, and has a real influence upon whole nations as
well as upon particular persons, it never yet so far pre-
vailed as to call in question the propositions we have
mentioned, and several more of the like kind, among
which that of the being of some first, which had
nothing previous to it, is undeniable.

Every art and science, language and fashion, suffers
alteration in tract of time; but the existence of a
Supreme Being has never yet been questioned by men
in their senses, or suffered the least revolution. It is
stUl the same in aU times, at distances, amongst all
nations, civilized or savage ; none so brutish and bar-
barous as to deny the existence of some God.' The
want and indigence of innumerable other things and
conveniences of life many people and nations have sus-
tained ; but never do we read of any, who were utterly
without something they feared and worshipped, though
it were but a red clout, an onion, or head of garlick ;
which shows the nature of our mind to be of such a
frame as, by the ordinary exercise of the faculties, it
determines here.

Nor could the great and wise Creator possibly so far
abandon the creature (which above all He had enriched
with a capacity of knowing and serving Him,) as to

' Cic, lib. i., De Leg., et cl. 11. To the same purpose, and al-
most in the same words, " Nulla gens adeo extra leges moresque
projecta, ut non aliquos Deos colat." — Seneca.

THE TEUE RELIGION. 5

leave him without any seminal ' principle or inclination,
that might conduct him to the spring and fountain of
his beinff.

Let any one reason and give himself time to think,
and trace emergent consequences, be the rivulet never
so small, it will, after all its meanders, bring him to the
source from whence it flows; and thus, whether up-
wards or downwards, beginning at ourselves, we take
hold of the chain by either link, we shall at last find
one of the extremes fastened to Jupiter's chain.^

Let us look into the Gentile world so many ages
past, or among the Heathens at this present day — of
innumerable instances to produce a few. The most
ancient of all philosophers, Hermes, in Egypt, (who
doubtless received it from the Hebrews) uses almost
the very words of Moses. Plato the Academic,' and
prince of the Peripatetics, Aristotle,* tells us that God,
or Mind, was author of all, even of Nature herself; and
particularly in his Treatise De Mirahilihus, brings that
instance of the Ocean's menacing an universal Deluge,

' That is, Reason exerting her faculties in due time, as seed
thrown into the ground, though making no appearance at first.

2 Noverim me, noverim Te (S. Bernard).

" Did I know myself, I should know Thee."

' In Timaso.

* Metaphys. I know what has been objected to Aristotle ; but
the imputation is so unjust, whilst he plainly has recourse to the
First Mover, and the TA Hav in his Metaphysics, and where in his
other Books of Nature he speaks of the Eternal, Immortal Prime
Cause, as shows it to be an aspersion ; not to add what he has said
in his Book De Mundo ; if that piece be his.

f) THE TRUE RELIGION.

by reason of its height above the Earth, were it not
restrained by some superior power. Zeno and the
stoics, nay, the most sensual and supine of all, Epi-
curus, unites in this central truth. To this agree
Theophrastus, Stobseus, Varro, Cicero, Seneca,' Plu-
tarch in passages innumerable, and, above all, the in-
comparable Epictetus. Join to these the ingenuous
confession and contemplation of Galen,^ who was no
)>igot. And if Epicurus and his poet * suppose the
Supreme Being exempt from the solicitudes of sublu-
nary things, he no where denies His existence, or if he
any where seems to doubt of it, what should we expect
from one that lived and died a madman ! So true is
that of the orator : " Esse Deos qui negat, vix eum sanw
mentis exisiimem."'^ Agreeable to that of holy David's,

" The fool hath said in his heart."
So naturally do aU wise men and sober agree on this
topic of whatever Religion they are.

From the philosophers turn we to the poets, who
were of old their divines and prophets. How frequent
are their raptures, invocations, and sentences to our
purpose ! Witness their Orpheus, the most ancient :
Hesiod, Homer, Menander, &c., of the Greeks i^ Virgil,
Ovid, Lucan, &c., of the Latins, describing the crea-

" Cic. De Nat. Deor. ; Sen. De Yit. Beal ; Nat. Qua:st.
= Gal. De Usu. Part.
^ Lucret. 9.

■* " The man, who denies that there is a God, I can scarce
account in his senses."

° Phooylides, Sophocles, Euripides.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 7

tion of the world and the formation of man. Nay, the
very loosest of the comedians, tragedians, satirists
among the Latins, universally speaking of the Deity
with all reverence ; accusing and scourging the impie-
ties of an evil age by their pious instructions, sentences,
and encomiums of virtue.

So general was the consent of Pagans as to this article
of a Deity, who made and governed the world, that
rather than be thought to have none, or fearing they
might miss of the true one, they embraced multitudes,
and took in all animals and inanimate things — stones,
plants, trees, rivers ; they had Dii nobiles, and majorum
gentium, and others innumerable, over all tilings, places,
passions, yea, and diseases. There were other com-
mentitious deities ; not as so many divine or distinct
substances, but manifestations, and several notions of
one divine power. For, otherwise, so various were
they, that Plato said he knew not what to call Venus —
whether goddess or not : for she is sometimes taken for
Pleasure, otherwhiles for Divine Love, Beauty, Sen-
suality, Fecundity : and the several operations of their
optimus mawimus were attributed to Vulcan, Bacchus,
Ceres, &c. And besides the sun and moon, they ad-
mitted all the constellations, the elements, all things in
Nature, and inventors of every art: and, lest there
should -any slip from them, they captivated the very
images of the countries which they subdued;' for so the
Romans; whilst the Greeks worshipped^ "the Un-

' See Jeremiah, xliii., 12. - Acts, xvii., 23.

8 THE TRUE RELIGION.

known God," lest any of the rest should take it ill, and
think themselves neglected.

But not to insist on what the heathen acknowledge,
even the devUs themselves believe and tremble, and are
forced to confess Him, not only in our Scriptures, those
oracles of the true God, but (to the confusion of his
own dominion and false worship) from his own tripod,
and the many idol-temples, where he had so long blinded
and deluded the world. The images and shrines they
adored; the altars they erected; their superstitious
rites, ceremonies, and sacrifices, were manifest proofs of
their devotion to some superior that could do them
good and evU, seeing it was not to the statues they
addressed their prayers and paid this honour (as St.
Augustine ' makes plain by several instances) as to
what they represented. Nor were they themselves so
stupidly ignorant, to think the stone or metal was
otherwise a god, than the fig-tree stump was MerciKy.

Another undeniable mark is then- oaths, execrations,
appeals, and prayers ; whence Zeno truly infers that,
however an Atheist passes his life, his prayers (being
in pain, and ready to die) confute his impious profes-
sions, and the signal judgments usually befalling them.
Examples of this were the catastrophes of Diagoras,
Protagoras, and Julian of old,^ Vaninus,^ and some

' De Civ. Dei, lib. ix.

^ [Protagoras is reported to have been shipwrecked : Julian, the
Apostate Emperor, to have exclaimed, when dying on the battle-
field, " Thou, O, Galilean, hast conquered."]

^ [Lucilio Vanini, a determined atheist, was burnt at Toulouse,
A.D. 1619.]

THE TRUE RELIGION. 9

(but very few) others of later times, who may be ac-
corded as prodigies in nature, phenomena rarely appear-
ing, seldom met with in history, and to be looked upon
as monsters rather than men. But of this more, when
we come to speak of natural religion.

Doubts and mistakes proceed not so much from the
things or objects themselves, as from their not being
rightly proposed to our understanding, in regard of the
many prejudices which arise from things external, that
pervert and vitiate the truth. And when we fancy
that immense world of fire, the sun, to be no bigger
than it to us appears — that a square tower at a distance
is round — that 2)arallel lines extended beyond our ken
touch at the extremes, and the like — I say, it is through
some such hallucination that all our doubtful inquiries
concerning the existence of a Deity proceed, and not
from any general or natural principle, but such sohtary
ones as are plainly erroneous and sophisticate — educa-
tion, power, interest, passion, example, imagination, elo-
quence, and whatsoever other circumstances bear any
false colours or reasonings.

There have been (among some of these) who pretend
the being of a Deity to have been the invention of cun-
ning politicians, to intimidate men, and reduce them to
discipline and obedience, for the better government of
the world. But this Is very foolish. Not Numa nor
Lycurgus could have persuaded the people to embrace
the belief of the being of a just God with any success,
had they not been before inclined to it already ; since

10 THE TRUE EELIGIOX.

it was the creed long before we read of any legislator
(Moses excepted) or governor in the world : and sundry
barbarous nations do yet believe and adore a God, who
have hardly any notion of reward or punishment. And
to acknowledge such deities as the Heathen did, was
rather pernicious to government than advantage ; and,
therefore, whoever of these pseudo-politicians per-
suaded men there were any gods, on that account, they
could not form nor create any such notion, without sup-
posing it already in every man by nature. Wherefore,
neither did Moses himself ever suppose it necessary to
inculcate that behef into the people of Israel, as con-
cluding it impossible for any rational man to believe
the contrary.

We have affirmed, and 'tis evident, that all we behold
above us and beneath us, all we touch, and contemplate
round about us, point to the Supreme author. And
supposing (but not granting) that what we are obliged
to believe from those objects were not the objects of
our common senses, yet may it be as certain as that
which is ; seeing there are innumerable things certain
as to their existence, the natures of which are incapable
of explanation.

We feel, and are aifected with pain — we smell, and
are sensible of odours, annoyed with such as are noisome
and fetid — we are delighted with harmonious, displeased
with harsh and discordant sounds, and the like of all
other objects of the tactile senses; whilst we cannot
explicate how these different sensations are made, or
by what contrivance in the organ. It is abundantly

THE TEUE EELIGION. 11

evident that we have proofs irrefragable, and which
need not any so deep and philosophical researches.
The Genesis of the world, and stupendous works of the
creation — the Providence, government, and maintenance
of this mighty machine, the structure of our own
bodies and reason, and the deductions she must of ne-
cessity make from these particulars, proclaim it aloud
to all mankind ; and there needs no other demonstra-
tion.

God (says Seneca) is aU we see and all we see not ;
for, whether there be any other middle-natures besides
those inanimate, sensitive, animal, rational, or more
intellectual and metaphysical beings, which both daily
experience and history discover to us, is not so evident
indeed to our senses, as highly probable to our reason,
and conformable to the analogy of nature.

It were strange that those vast and numerous regions
and bodies above us should be desert and devoid of
inhabitants ; whilst we find nothing so contemptible
here beneath in the lower world but what is full of life
and motion ; from the elephant, whale, and eagle, in
the earth, water, air, to the most minute and despicable
insect that crawls. Nor doubt I but as the inferior, so
the superior continents may be furnished with living,
and (for aught we know) intelligent creatures and
species, annexing the elementary world to the celestial
and etherial, even through all the illustrious orders of
the heavenly hierarchy, as by a chain and series of
causes, to the cause of causes itself.

Thus the little stream and smallest brook hastens to

12 THE TRUE EELIGION.

the more ample river through innumerable meanders,
the river takes its way to the seas — thus the branch to
the stem, the stem to the root, and that to its first and
seminal rudiment. The being of mankind had thus its
first origin, with retrospect from ancestor to ancestor,
tUl we arrive at the first man from whom they sprung.
Xow, though it be necessary and absolutely essential
that his Creator be without beginning, as he is infinite
and without ending : 'tis not so of the world or man, as
we shall show :

To continue this chase, there is, we find, a first and
last in everything in nature, nay, in imagination also,
whether we wUl argue from the succession of men, or
the peopling of countries, the production and nativity
of plants, foundation of empires, edification of cities,
and other artificial works; seeing there were in all
these a first father, a first colony, a first seed, first
sovereign, first stone, a first hand which laid that stone,
and superstructed or framed the engine.

And thus, by a familiar instance, the hammer is
raised by a wheel, that wheel by a consequence of
other wheels; those are moved by a spring, pendule,
or poise, which first gives motion to the first wheel,
and, lastly, is that spring wound or drawn up by some
hand which was the prime and original agent ; actuated
by nerves, those nerves invigoured with spirits, origi-
nated in the brain, prompted by the fancy, the iinder-
standing will, and other faculties of the soul, by a first
and immediate mover, of itself immoveable from any-
thing extrinsecal, before or above it, in time or power

THE TKUE RELIGION. 13

namely, that InteUigence which moves and directs the
great clock of the universe.

Thus, what has no beginning must be eternal, and
that which is eternal was always the same it is, and
ever shall be ; for were anything precedent to it,
it were the thing we seek. But, seeing something must
be first, that thing or Being must be God: nor may
mankind or any being be deprived of that Being, but
by some superior and more puissant Being or motion ;
nor can it annihilate its being of itself, unless by some
being greater than itself, and it were absurd to suppose
it otherwise, and would involve us in the same circle.

SECTION II. BY THE CREATION.
The stupendous machine of the universe, which
God unfolded in his creature, is another inference so
convincing of the existence of a Deity, as that Zam-
blicus will have the simple contemplation of it, a very
beholding of God Himself with our eyes, and touching
Him with our hands ; not as fancying it to be the real
God we are speaking of, as some imagined, since, if so,
the world, and what we see, must have been eternal,
and made itself (which is absurd, and what we shall
refute) but for its being composed, and framed with
such admirable skill, wisdom, order, and magnificence,
as takes off all pretence of doubting, and is so palpable
an argument, that St. Paul (preaching to the Gentiles)
tlilnks it sufficient to convince the learned Athenians,'
' Acts, xvii., 24.

14 THE TEUE RELIGION.

and no less knowing Eomans,' where he tells them
that God has evidently demonstrated it to them, "being
understood by the things that are made, even his eternal
power and Godhead." And thus Heraclius shows to
Hermadorus how the world, in its structure and orna-
ment, gave testimony of a Deity. And those, who did
less consider it, did yet grope after it, and could not
devise how so goodly a structure should be raised, with-
out something to move the materials, and dispose them
into that wondrous order ; and therefore introducing a
certain divine mind, they held it to pervade the universe,
from whose activity all effects were first produced.

As for those lazy philosophers, who left all to chance
and atoms, they are rather objects of derision, than
worthy of dispute : for Epicurus, with aU his fortunate
encounters and coalitions, is driven to suppose strange
hooks, figures, and claws, to make his system hang to-
gether, and preserve his world from endless change.
For that there should be a constant and uniform speci-
fication, males and females, in such proportion, and not
every moment jumble into new and anomalous ones, is
not easy to conceive, without allowing the component
principles to have either sense or quality, nor letting
us know whence their motions do proceed. But that,
though they were the originals of all, themselves had
none ; and so make them gods, whilst he denies there
be any, at least such as are at all concerned with things
of this nature.

And upon this substruction does the late Des Cartes
'■ Rom., i., 19, 20.

THE TEUE RELIGION. 15

raise his renowned edifice, making, by the mutual attri-
tions of his atoms, the globular ones to compose the
celestial bodies, and their chips, or filings, as it were,
to be the materia suhtilis diffused through the universe,
fiUing up the chinks and interstices, and giving motion
and action, not only to the animal kingdom, (which he
will have but dead and senseless engines) but to aU
things else in nature. He will have God contribute
nothing more to the creation of the world, than the
whirling of innumerable vortices, globes, and striate
particles ; from whose casual motions (according to cer-
tain catholic and universal laws of matter) there pro-
ceed all animates and inanimates whatsoever, without
the conduct of any understanding Being, Wisdom, or
Providence.'

Let us suppose the production of mankind from his
atoms. How principles of life and sense should emerge,
without a vital nature, and a virtue of attracting to
Itself a substance proper to frame the Inditiduum, is
altogether inconceivable, seeing it must of necessity
contain likewise the faculty of that formative act, by
which the matter is moulded, and made conform to its
specific nature. And, finally, it must have all the same
powers and energies of the rational soul, as our late

' Similarly the Hylo-zoists held every atom of matter to be
endowed with a plastic, spermatic life ; and though unconscious,
yet capable of producing all things ; nay, and to improve them
into animality and sense, yea, reason and understanding, without
need of any incorporeal substance. Epicurus and Democritus,
who made the world but &ov ttjs vuktos, an egg of one night, did
not allow any such thing as incorporeal, but space.

16 THE TRUE RELIGION.

grave and learned Hales' has elaborately made out, ex-
amining the opinions of our wild philosophers, who state
the original of things either ah aterno, or indeed any
other cause, save the pleasure of a wise and omnipotent
Being.

Did ever any see a picture representing a history, in
which divers actions and persons were judiciously de-
signed, placed, and coloured; the lights, shades, per-
spectives, and other circumstances of that curious art
exactly observed, such as we see to be the works of
Raphael, Titian, &c., and not believe some such skilful
artist had managed the pencil ? Was it likely the Ihad
of Homer, the commentaries of J. Caesar, or the vaster
works of Livy, Plutarch, or Cicero, were composed by
the fortuitous jimibling together of a printer's box of
letters ? The world is a poem — the most perfect and
consummate piece that ever was made; and did no
more happen by chance than stones do dig themselves
out of the quarry, not only squared and adjusted to
every part and ornament of a regular building, but,
according to the rules of architecture, form themselves
into the five orders, and dance into a palace at the
sound of the harp. Nor do trees hew themselves into
beams, boards, and wainscot; nor tiles pin and lay
themselves upon the rafters ; nor does glass blow itself
into panels, and with other materials, which require
art to bring them into use, erect themselves into
houses, churches, and whole cities, with all their va-
rious furniture ; nor do ships grow equipped with all
' Origin of Mankind.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 17

thoir tackle and apparel, rigged and ready to sail ;
nor find we clocks and watches, with all their subtile
wheels, and curious springs and motions, in the mines
of brass and iron, without the labour and excogita-
tion of an intelligent artist. And if we acknowledge
that every house, ship, and watch, so fitted and com-
pletely finished, was the work of some man, shall we
not much more conclude that this far more exact system
of the Universe (so admirably contrived beyond all that
the art of man can boast of skill and cunning), was
made by some Omnipotent and infinitely wise Agent ?
But so our modern wits, who never yet so much as saw
one atom or grain of dust start up into being out of
nothing, will have them to frame the world, and, with-
out patience to consider wit, or honesty, persist in this
madness, and think thereby to ridicule all Eehgion as
well as sense and reason. But as the wise man has
noted : " So v-ain are all men by nature, who are ignorant
of God, and cannot (or rather, idll not), out of the pood
thinr/s that are seen, hnoio Him that is, neither by con-
sidering the works, acknowledge the work-master. For (nj
the greatness and beauty of the Creature, proportionally
the Maker of them is seen." '

Of how depraved a sense must needs one be to think
that Chance was the producer of intellectual substances,
and devised so many beautiful and useful inventions,
and gave them an understanding to effect that which
Chance itself could not, namely, impart that power and
faculty to another it never was possessed of! No, this
' Wisd. xiii. 1-5.

VOL. I. C

18 THE TRUE EELIGION.

noble and illustrious work, cemented In its various
parts, and cast into the system we behold it, was doubt-
less limited and determined to the forms assimied. Nor
could its component matter form and actuate itself with-
out some impulse and impression separate from its
matter. If self-motion be essential to matter, it must
of necessity have been coeval, and in it ab acterno, which
is not possible. For, if there be no atom in repose but
what naturally is in motion, then the principles of
Epicurus are corruptible, because divisible. If of no
parts and indivisible, then have they no extension, and
if no extension no power to form anything, much less
to make a world.

Moreover, does matter move? Then it takes up
place, and consequently has parts, figure being a deter-
mined superficies. Again, if motion result from the
principles of matter, how comes this motion (infinite and
variable as it is) to be determined to such a form, such
order, and in so regular a method and economy, for so
many ages, without relapsing into chaos and confusion;
seeing there is no natural or essential necessity that
either matter should at aU exist, move, or determine
itself to such particular form, but by some casual en-
counter or superior directing cause ? The first is child-
ishly ridiculous, for chance is either nothing or some-
thing created. If something created, then had it a
beginning ; if none, then must it be something distinct
from matter, eternal, and self-existent ; and so is what
we contend for, namely, the First Cause, which is God,
the Cause of Causes, But, if Chance be nothing save

THE TRUE EELIGION. 19

a name — vox et prasterea nihil — how monstrously absurd
were it to affirm that nothing created something, nay,
all that ever was created ! whereas, if there had ever
been nothing, nothing could ever have been. Some-
thing, therefore, must be which never was made, namely,
self-originated' and eternal.

That, in the mean time, God, who Is something, nay,
who is all things, created all things out of nothin<,',
implies no contradiction, though to us inexplicable, ex
nihilo nil, excluding no supernatural production, but
natural generation only. Theophrastus doubted not of
tliis, and Seneca acknowledged a Chaos, so did Linus,
Hesiod, and even the very Indians, as did the Egyptians
long before, something of a sluggish, pre-existent matter,
which was held from the consideration of things artificial,
that supposes something out of which all things were
made.

But, from the weakness and imbecility of the creature,
to argue the same of the Omnipotent, were to betray a
greater weakness in us, and want of reason. AA'hen,
therefore, it is affirmed that nothing produces nothing,
we must conceive it of natural causes, raised out of our
experience of successive generations, wliich indeed mvist
necessarily have some being before the things arisinij;
from them had being. For though, since that time, all
plants have sprung from their seeds, and animals from
their parents, &c. ; yet was there doubtless a plant which
bore and produced that seed, and parents to beget that
offspring. Hence the opinion that the whole Universe

' 'AvTocpves.

20 THE TRUE RELIGION.

was at first but one great egg, of which the shell was
the vast expanse, the air the white, and the earth its
yoke. And some affirmed it of an oval form also, and
made it symboHcal of the world,' as may be gathered
from the Phoenician philosophy, Plutarch,^ Macrobius,
Proclus, and the Platonists, agreeable to the incubation
of an indulgent Spirit, which some of them gave hints
of. We shaU not trouble ourselves with that imperti-
nent question, which was the first, the egg, or the chick
(as some have done) ; but tliis we find, that God created
every plant of the ground in its full vigour and perfec-
tion, prolific and ready to yield increase, and so the
fowls before we hear of any disclosure of the eggs. The
womb of animals also was made before a child was born;
and sundry things, as Heaven, Earth, Angels, and
Si)uls, and elemental bodies, were the immediate pro-
duction of Almighty God, as other tilings mediatehi
from things pre-created, namely, out of the Earth and
^.A^atcrs, as birds, beasts, fishes, and plants, and even
man himself.

In the mean time, 'tis as hard to conceive how matter
(or anything out of wliich anything is made) should rise
and residt out of itself, as out of nothing, and altogether
incomprehensible that senseless materials should be their
own architectresses to the degree of furnishing such a
world of things as are daily the objects of our senses.
I say, this is a strain of wit so extravagant, and, in
plain terms, so impossible, that, should it once be

' Plut. In Sympos , i. 2.

^ Plut. In Sympos., 1. 4. Macrob., 1. 7, c. 16.

THE TRUE RELIGIOX. 21

seriously embraced, would not only bring to ground all
our mechanical philosophers, but aU that Ave have been
taught of good sense and religion.

That God made all tilings from nothing is yet cer-
tainly true, and even demonstrably so, or else there can
be no such Being as God. For, if there be such a thing,
then of necessity there must be that principle, which
created the first thing ; and, if He did not make the
first thing, then there is something besides Him, and
which never was made ; and, if so, then there are two
first or two Eternal Beings.

Wlierefore, if God formed the first tiling, he formed
it of nothing. One, then, of these propositions must
be true : either nothing was before something existent,
or was not. If it were (though but one single moment),
then was there never anything, or ever could be since ;
because nothing could produce nothing; and, to pro-
duce itself before it was, is not only absurd, but im-
possible. Therefore, of necessity, something had an
actual existence from all eternity ; self-subsisting and
giving being, immediately or mediately, to all sub-
ordinate beings. And this independent Being is only
necessary ; all the rest contingent and at his pleasure.

On the other side, ascribe we aU to Nature, and
mean not the God of nature, is to split on the same
rock. Nature, therefore, (in the large sense) is that
which comprehends the entire virtue of aU finite beings,
subordinated to the first of Beings, and which, accord-
ing to the ordinary course, are regulated by certain
constant and uniform laws ; and so the course of nature

22 THE TETJE EELIGIOlSr.

is no other than the will and pleasure of the God of
nature. Indeed, God does not do all things in nature
inunediately ; but governs the motion of matter to the
form designed, whilst that matter does not understand
the reason of what it does, nor for what end, being
wholly guided to that by a mental and wise causality.
Things, then, have their primogenital being from the
supernatural power of God, who imprinted on them all
their specific ideal signatures and animal efficacies ;
so ordered, and setting in motion second causes, as to
bring together apt materials for the composition of the
several species. And, when once they are in this
method of existence, they afterwards move and act
according to the nature and course of life and progress,
minted and stamped upon them in their first creation.

This is nature, nor has she any further hand or intent
in any of those operations ascribed to her ; and, in this
sense, we may safely have recourse to, and speak of
second causes without reproach ; since they are but the
Almighty's instruments, ordinary and natural Provi-
dences — unless where things and efifects are so very
extraordinary, as the wisest and most considering per-
sons cannot sound and discern the reason, or are other-
wise altogether stupendous, just as miraculous works,
and things supernaturally happening ; while our atheis-
tical devotees to Dame Nature (though what they pre-
tend be with the greatest violence imaginable to all
reason, experience, and indeed to the very laws and
sanctions of nature) think it, forsooth, beneath their
wit and high-flown reach to acknowledge any other

TUE TRUE RELIGION. 23

efficient than what is the object of their senses, and
form their conclusions accordingly of all things else.

Once more, then, nature (in a more restrained sense,
and as she more nearly concerns our enquiries) may be
said to be the power and capacity of matter, as that
power (we said) is conducted by the same steady and
constant ordinance by which she acts and disposes of it,
]\Iatter being, of itself, as to any interior principle,
stupid, immoveable, and uncertain, till agitated by
some superior virtue exterior to it. And this philoso-
phers call motion, and is that which, dividing this stupid
and heavy lump, does also figure and modify all that
we with so much worthy admiration contemplate in
tliis aspectable world ; and which, without this mover,
had still remained substantial matter and bulk indeed,
and in capacity of being moved by another ; but never
thus diversified for beauty and usefulness, and might as
well have been a deformed and rugged rock.

But, supposing that matter were endued with any
necessary motion, yet being without mind, purpose,
thought, or counsel : though that motion might possibly
have separated the mass, it could never have produced
any useful figure, regular and organic species, witli
those several and admirable accommodations, with all
the train of subordinate circumstances, and orderly
effects of necessity belonging to them.

Moreover, this unexcogitated division would also
have been illimited, and never left crumbling and
mouldering away ; having nothing to hinder, nothing to
maintain it. Wherefore that motion which has given

24 THE TEUE EELIGIOX.

tills impulse to matter, and brought it to tliis beautiful
and firm contexture, is (whether we will or not), that
prime, superior, and noble cause, the Father of Nature,
IMatter, and ]\Iotion ; the Omnipotent central Being of
Beings.

'Nov was it other than God's goodness and free bene-
v<:)lence, which was the cause of what He has wrought ;
no intrinsic necessity, no, not of doing the good He
(iontinuaUy does, and daily pours upon His work. For
though his own nature be the most benign, the emana-
tions and exercises of it, as to His creatures, are
directed by His own free will and favour; seeing
otherwise He could make nothing worse or better.
Indeed, there be who will have Him to be a necessary
cause, and yet a voluntary, and that He does always
what is best, because it is of His perfection to do so,
namely, to communicate of His bounty to something
without Him, from the eternal beneficence of His
nature. But this is inconsistent with the necessity
they pretend; seeing necessary agents have no more
power at any time to suspend their activity, than fire
to burn and heat. To imagine, therefore, this of God,
were to deprive Him of imderstanding and the exercise
of His power, wisdom, and wUl, which alone created all,
and can do aU things.

Thus have we examined the Invalidity of that pre-
carious fancy, that unthinking matter should fall by
chance, or act necessarily (when once in motion) into
this orderly figm-e ; or that it should retain any innate
perfection, beside a bulky magnitude, much less an-

THE TKUE RELIGION. 25

infinite perfection, such as eternity and all those other
divine attributes, incommunicable and needful for the
work of creation. We have Ukewise showed the work
of nature to be the work of reason, not of created
nature ; that without diversity, separation, and union
of parts, nothing can be made, and that this separation
being the eifect of motion, and not competent to matter
of itself, does of necessity require some hand or power
to actuate it. It is likewise evident, that no part could
produce the whole: that the world could not make
itself; that without sense, excogitation, and purpose,
things so orderly contrived could never have been
created ; and that, therefore, tliis principle is something
extrinsical, and nothing from within common matter.
Lastly, that nothing is or can be eternal, but in the
idea of the Almighty : and that to make matter pro-
duce itself is to make that God which is no God,
but to Atheists and impious men without God in the
world.

But we now descend to particulars. The contem-
plation of this vast and goodly machine, how loudly it
bespeaks us in the language of the Royal Prophet, the
" glory of God and His handy-work."' Behold here a
demonstration, 0, Atheist! if nothing save daily mi-
racles will convince thee, here thou hast to entertain
thy infidel curiosity.

'Whether it be^ the position, course, or order of the sun,
or other luminaries' motion, or that of the earth ; or the

' Psalm xix.

' See "Dr. Taylor's Consideration of Man."

26 THE TRUE RELIGION.

sweet influences of the Pleiades, Orion and his sons, or
other refulgent constellations, which give light, growth,
and vigour to aU the lower world, and (for aught we know)
to ten thousand more above us ; — their order, progress.
Immense magnitude, distance, and inconceivable spaces,
comprehending perhaps many million of greater bodies,
and likely habitations and continents, serving to the
Almighty's vast design, — are the astonishing wonders,
which proclaim that nothing but an Infinitely wise and
all-powerful agent could raise a machine so useful,
glorious, and Immense. Nor Is It possible that all those
glorious and infinite number of distant globes should
have nothing in them to praise their omnipotent Maker ;
since Christ has said that in His Father's House are
many mansions, who framed the world to communicate
his own infinite beneficence, and that there might be
other Beings happy with Him: " Israel, how great Is
the house of God, and how large Is the place of his pos-
session !" '

Who without amazement can consider the self-poising
earth, and the other celestial bodies we look upon, with-
out other prop to sustain them in the liquid air, or more
subtUe ether ? Contemplate we the periodical returns
of the equinoxes and solstices — the just distance of the
sun — the interposition of atmosphere, qualifying and
attempering the fiery emanations of that burning ocean,
to a just and benign warmth, for the comfort and pro-
duction of those innumerable species, to which it imparts
growth, maturity, and life; In a word, the universal
' Baruch, iii. 24.

THE TRUE EELIGION. 27

benefit of the elementary world ! Behold, next, his
oblique motion, whereby he visits every part and re-
gion, by which the grosser exhalations are meteorized,
circulated, and condensed into clouds, and sustained by
the atmosphere ; both to shadow and refresh the weary
ground, descending in fruitful showers, softening and
impregnating the teeming earth ! The snow, hail, ice,
and frosts, subdue and mellow the stubborn clods, keep-
ing the native warmth within from dissipation, whose
virtue else would soon be exhausted by the perpetually
burning planet ! Then behold the sun in the firmament
and centre of the heavens ; the subterranean fires in
the bosom and centre of the earth, to prepare and con-
coct the mineral juices, and other concretes for useful
metals, gems, and other precious substances, stones,
shells, and colours : qualifying also the waters for nutri-
ment, medicinal drinks, and salutary baths, and a thou-
sand other purposes ; wliilst the seasons, not passing
from one extreme to the other, but sweetly, and by im-
perceptible degrees, sUde as it were from winter to
spring, from spring to summer, from thence to harvest
and fruitful autumn, in a wonderful economy ; and by
a no less admirable Providence all things are preserved,
which else would have been inverted, disturbed, and
lost ; since things so contrary could never have met to
make up this harmony and perfection.

The restless ebbing and flowing of the seas, observing
the course of the lunar phases ; their enigmatical cur-
rents, fluxes, and reciprocations ; and how they were
contrived to irrigate and refresh all the parts of the

28 THE TRUE RELIGION.

earth, in rivers and larger streams ; made to serpent in
meandering crooks, not only to check their rapid course,
but kindly to visit the most inland parts ; and are fitted
for navigation and commerce of distant nations. The
havens too, and creeks, and bending shores and bays,
are stations for ships, impelled by various winds. These
not only ventilate the air, and stir the water from un-
wholesome stagnations, and give motion to mills and
other useful engines, but help the bold mariner to
plough the vast and liquid main, and bring him to the
haven where he would be. And when the storm arises,
and the proud waves swell, the shores are a curb to
their fury. Thus far shalt thou come, and no farther.
But who can number the sands of the sea ? He, only,
to whom earth and sea are as a drop of the bucket,
and the dust of the balance. " For the sea is His, and
He made it, and His hands prepared the dry land."'
" All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field,
the fowls of the air, and the fishes of the sea, and what-
soever passeth through the paths of the seas;"^ innume-
rable for multitude, stupendous for shape and magni-
tude, and incomparable for use and benefit. Thus every
place is garnished and furnished; nor has God made
anything lq vain ; nothing is defective, nothing su-
perfluous.

Take we next a prospect of the earth's surface, and

behold from the lofty mountains how the humble valleys

are clothed with verdure, goodly trees, and variety of

plants and flowers. These serve for building, fuel,

' Psalm xcv., 5. * Psalm viii,, 7, 8.

THE TJtUE UELIGIOX. 29

fruit, and mccrniiio, and for the sustenance of those
who cultivate them. Consider but the rudiment of a
tall and unibrancous tree, from so minute a seed as may
bo borne away by every blast, or carried to the hold of
an insect less than itself, increasing to so immense a
stature as a Inmdred oxen cannot move. The shady
boup;hs, verdant leaves, useful timber, delicious juices,
wholesome fruits. Then turn your eyes to the enamelled
grass, and read God on every flower: see and admire
their uniformity, beauty, colour, variety, perfume, virtue,
which who could ij;ive them, but an infinitely wise and
glorious Ik'ing? Is it possible to contemplate the
single production of one of these, without astonishment
and hymns of praise ? Whilst the head and root of all
this flowery beiiuty is hid and buried in S(jualid nuid,
enduring all the sevt'rities of weather, and even emerging
out ol' rottenness into that ravishing variety of shape,
tincture, odour, qualities, and operations I The cocoa
alone is a miraculous instance, Jitted for all hvmian
uses, meat, drink, clothing, shelter, and a thousand
other eou\en!euces !

A\'ho but the Physician of Souls were able to enu-
merate the virtues and eli'ects of the vegetable king-
dom? The various sorts of apples, pears, cherries,
a[)ricots, peaches, nectarines, plums, grapes, and smaller
berries; the orange, lemon, tig, granate, melon, sugar-
cane ; and all these even in one alone, the royal pine —
II coiupcudium of all that is delicious to the taste and
smell. That from so weak, despicable, and \iscless
stem as what supports the vino, planted among the

30 THE TRUE RELIGION.

rocks and pumices, such variety of delicious and tempt-
ing juices should flow ! corn to strengthen, and wine to
comfort the heart of man, and oil to make him a cheer-
ful countenance ! Behold the odoriferous cedar, the
tall fir, and spreading oak, the shady plane, the upright
and victorious palm, the beautiful cypress ; and among
the more humble shrubs, the myrtles, jasmines, laurels,
honeysuckles, healing balms, and sensitive plants, &c

Walk then a turn into the flowery parterres of roses,
lilies, tulips, anemones, amaranths, frittUlarias, gen-
tianellas, hepaticas, and carnations ; together with the
aromatic spikes, thymes, &c. ; all these, and thousands
more, dressed, figured, fringed, folded, miniated and
decked by the hand of Him who made the heavens ;
nor was Solomon, in all his glory, clad like one of
these.

Demand, next, of the beasts of the field, and even
they shall teach thee — the fowls of the air, and they
shall instruct thee — and the fishes of the sea, they shall
declare imto thee, Who knoweth not in all these that the
hand of the Lord hath wrought this?' The whale,
which God has made to take his pastime in the vast
ocean, among innumerable spawns, producing that
variety of fishes and crooked serpents: who can con-
sider the crustaceous kinds — the lobster, armed cap-a-
pie, crabs, tortoise, in their fortress-shells, without ad-
mii-ation ! The beaver, crocodile, and hippopotamus, are
amphibious : the behemoth, rhinoceros, docile elephant,
the useful horse, camel, di-omedary, for speedy carriage
' Job, xii., ix.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 31

and courage : the painful, strong, and patient ox, for
laljour ; the fleece-bearing sheep ; cows for milk ; goats,
deer, and other cattle, upon a thousand hills.

In deserts lurks the spotted leopard, the swift tiger,
indomitable panther, bears, wolves, and foxes; and
those most in the colder climates, affording iuxs and
skins. The wild boar is in the forest ; the squirrels on
the trees ; the faithful and watchful dog, domestic ; the
mimicing apes divert us ; and above all these, for
strength, are the lions, seeking their meat of God ; and
so do the young ravens that call upon Him ; the tower-
ing eagles, hawks, and birds of prey ; the loquacious
parrot, the sagacious crane, pious stork, architectress
swallow, chaste dove, warbUng nightingale, glorious
peacock, thrushes, linnets, canaries, and other singing
birds, their wonderful notes, nidifications, trains, and
plumage.

These, and infinite more, are fed with flesh, grain,
fruits, flies, of which latter there is stupendous variety,
for shape, colour, and contrivance: consider but the
strength of the minutest gnat, piercing with his in-
^•isible dart the thickest skin, and drawing blood through
lus proboscis ; hear his trumpet, sounding from so small
a pipe : for him lies in wait the subtle spider, display-
ing her nets for the surprise. From the wise serpent
to the crawling worm, they are all endowed with won-
derful instincts, to propagate, defend, and preserve
themselves : nor is there among them the least mite or
peper-worm, (that dust of a creature, whereof fifty
thousand are contained in one drop) but is for food to

32 THE TRUE RELIGION.

some other creature ; and we extract antidotes out of
vipers, and sanative remedies from the poisonous can-
tharides.

What shall we say of the monarchical bee, and the
dulcet elixir she so industriously gathers and stives in
her admirably contrived and waxen city ; the govern-
ment of her numerous subjects: or, again, the order
and economy of the little ant, to which Solomon sends
the sluggard ? Can we look on the laborious silkworm,
from an egg no bigger than a grain of sand, through all
its wonderful changes, life, death, sepulchre, and resur-
rection, without astonishment! how, with her tender
web, she clothes the proudest potentate, and without
wliDsc spoils the heiglit of their glory would be but
from the common fleece, which covers the beggar as
warm as the king ! The murex yields us purple, and a
despicable worm the scarlet, which gives reverence to
princes. It were endless and plainly impossible to con-
tinue the recension through remote countries and the
Xew World, or to take an account of every creature
that came into the ark of Noah. Millions there are
we liardly take notice of, and some so small, as to elude
the most accurate microscope. All things are fuU of
life ; and the least of these framed with admirable pro-
portion, fitted to their several natures and distinct
organs. Thus are seen through the mirror of Creation
the maqivdla of God in His smallest works. AU thinfrs,
as the wise man says, are double one against another,
and He has made nothing imperfect, but one thinn- for
the good of another ; and who shall be filled with be-

THE TraTE religion. 33

holding Ills glory ?' In sum, we may speak much, and
yet come short : wherefore lie is AU.

But there are yet greater things than these ; for we
have seen but a few of His works, till we have seen and
considered i\Ian, the kist, though not the least, of tlie
Creation : the Almighty proceeding still to more jDcr-
fection, and because he designed a place and habitation
richly furnished for him that was to be the image and
bear the character of his glorious Maker, and to raise
his admiration to contemplate and delight in the bounty
of his gracious Benefactor.

C\insidcr we, iirst, the structure of his body, upright
stature, majesty, charming countenance, ra\ isliing eyes,
and variety of features. Let us search witliin his liead
for the seat of his superior faculties. That so fluid and
unlikcl)' a substance, placed in the several cells, should
pretend to the residence of his sense, reason, memory,
imagination ; aud be the shop and magazine of those
wonderful ideas. The velocity of the motion, wliicli
carries its mandate over the rest of the body, even to
the most distant members, in a moment of time ; .and
retaining so many ditt'crcnt notions of tilings, figures,
persons, places, and be able to reposite and draw forth
for use and in order ; and then to express his mind by
articulate sounds and eloquent speech, for society, con-
■versation, and the praise of his ISIaker ; and all these
faculties contained in so small a fortress as the head,
is plainly miraculous.

Let us consider how these several senses, sent out by
' El-cIus., xlii., -24, -io.

VOL. I. 1>

34 THE TRUE RELIGION.

the soul to speculate abroad, report what they find, by
the central touches and perceptive notices darted from
every atom, and the surface of various objects, on the
exquisitely fine, innumerable, and universally dispersed
nerves and membranes that invest them ; whose root is
in the brain, where (as we said) all our conceptions are
forged, our appetites and passions excited and regulated.
Look into the fabric of the eye only, for an
instance of the rest of the sensitive organs. The hu-
mours and tunicles are transparent, to let in colours,
and therefore tinctured with none themselves. The
parts of the eye convex, to let in the many rays pro-
ceeding from one point of the object to the bottom of
the eye. Then has the uvea a muscular power, to con-
tract and dilate that perforation in it called the pupil,
thereby moderating the transmission of light. Then
is the inside of the uvea black, that the rays, falling on
the retina, may not, by rebounding on the uvea, re-
vert on the retina again, and so, by repercussion, con-
found the light. Then follows the tunica arachiioides,
enveloping the crystalline, by help of the ciliari/ processes,
to thrust forward or draw back the useful part of the
organ, as the vicinity or distance of the object requires.
Lastly, the tunica velina is made purely white, the
better to receive the species, as black letters are better
distinguished on white paper. We might proceed to de-
scribe the wonderful effects and contrivances of the
several muscles which direct its several motions ; the
quick motion of the eyeUds, to preserve them from
injury : and, after the same manner, how the tactile,

THE TRUE RELIGION. 35

auditory, and olfactory senses, and that of the taste, are
excogitated : but, to speak a little of each, would re-
quire a volume, not a chapter.

We cannot yet pass by the hand, that instrument so
indetermined to any operation, and universally useful,
but we will suspend it till we come to speak of Pro-
vidence, which will be another topic of conviction to
our atheist. Innumerable are the uses of this organon
organorum,^ as the philosopher calls it.

And verily we must acknowledge it altogether stu-
pendous, and superior to what any other creature can
pretend to. He calls it (and that rightly) not owe, but
all instruments, and is in a kind of rapt and admiration
at the curious mechanism of the fingers,^ adapted to so
many intricate conveniences. And in earnest, when
we consider the wonderful motions of the spine and
several vertebrae of the human skeleton, composed of so
many Integrals, among the joints and bones, .the irri-
guous and meandering veins, their sluices, valves, &c.
The pulse of arteries, conjugation of nerves, divaricated
into so infinite a number of capillary vessels, so wisely
and copiously disposed for the perception of the most
delicate touch ! When we contemplate how the chyle
is made into blood ; the blood accended, circulated,
refined, spiritualized, distributed, assimilated, and co-
piously diffused; when one reflects on the perpetual
vibrations of the heart, moving so many years ; the
functions of the liver, spleen, gall, kidneys, and other

' Aristotle, De Part. An., c. 30.
' Lact. De Opif. Dei., c. 10.

d2

36 THE TRUE RELIGION.

intestine cleansers: or examine the connexion of the
joints, and their numberless flexures ; that at the least
six hundred several muscles belong to our bodies, on
which attend ten distinct intentions (namely, to each so
many) amounting in the total to six thousand various
purposes and ends to be considered ; and that of the
bones to be of a hundred thousand ; to say no more of
the minuter contextures of all those other parts of the
body, with what curious stamina and threads the whole
is woven and knit together, we cannot be to seek for a
demonstration that there went something more than
chance, or ordinary power, to the framing of so beauti-
ful, so useful, so admirable a creature.

We have said nothing of the astonishing contrivance
of other parts ; how the teeth are ordained, some to
cut, others to grind the meat, and fit it for the stomach,
after the tongue and palate have passed their censure ;
nor how it is there concocted and transmitted into the
viscera, and by what mysterious actions and various
ferments it is drawn and distributed, for the supply of
blood, spirits, and other juices and humours necessary
to preserve the body : whilst the lungs maintain a per-
petual stream of breath and air, to temper and refrige-
rate the heart — that shop of Hfe, which maintains that
intercourse with the brain, and, through the recurrent
nerves, gives motion to the muscular system, in obe-
dience to the dictates of the mind.

Wlio is able to trace the stupendous circulation of the
blood, its perpetual flux and reflux, both to carry that
elaborated and noble juice to the most distant vessels.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 87

and to preserve it from stagnation? But, above all,
the miraculous economy of the several offices serving
for propagation, and that, from such unlikely rudiments,
the species should be continued, and endowed with
faculties, vegetable, sensitive, rational, so stupendously
united ; and with innate sentiments, improvable to the
perfecting of a rational life. How this embrion is ir-
radiated, how nourished, produced, and perfected, is a
subject of contemplation that can enter nowhere but in
the highest wisdom, and a Providence altogether divine.
AYell might Galen,' then, have raised that noble thought
on this so noble a work, as indeed he has ; and, there-
fore, Justin Martyr tells us that, in his time, even
among the heathen, there was an express hymn in use,
to celebrate in particular the creation of man ; account-
ing religion and true piety not to consist in sacrifices,
hecatombs, and costly incense ; but in recognition and
declaration of God's infinite power and beneficence in
adorning the world with such a goodly creature,
and making such great variety, without envying good
to anything capable of His bounty. And on this
account it is, that INIaximus Tvrius exhorts men to con-
temjilate God, and lifting up our minds to penetrate
even beyond the visible heavens to the Invisible Deity.
Man, therefore, thus formed, endowed, and accom-
plished, was not made by chance, and to grovel only
here ; nor sprung he up from the exuberance of preg-
nant earth betwixt the tropics, now effete, and spent
with bearing ; nor, as mice and insects, from the slime
' De usu part.

38 THE TEUE EELIGION.

of Nilus ; which yet never anybody has seen. For who
should give the tender and senseless babe the breast,
and cherish the new-born infant ? These are visions of
poets, and the dreams of idle men. In a word, there-
fore, man, framed by angehc hands, erect of posture, fit
to act and command, in the bloom and vigour of youth,
of goodly stature, exact proportion, with quick and
sparkling eyes, judicious brow, floating tresses, every
feature, every motion composed and graceful, has all
that the earth, air, and water can produce, to delight
and serve him. The various shape of beasts, the
charming notes of birds, the several sorts of fish sporting
in their liquid element, the beauty of flowers, the
diapered and enamelled meads, verdant grass, delicious
fruits, shady trees. The resplendent sun, the orders of
stars, the meandering rivers, crystal streams, the cooling
frosts, the surprising heights of the rising mountains,
the luxurious valleys, rocks sparkling with gems and
veins of richest ore; and all these without labour
but what is agreeable to his nature, and the enter-
tamment of his contemplation. For He made us, and
aU these things, and not we ourselves; we are the
work of His hands.

O happy sovereign, then, whose empire once was the
whole world; whose palace was the spacious earth,
whose canopy was the starry heavens, whose vassals
were all the creatures ;i whose food was paradisian;
clothing, innocence ; conversation, angels ; whose law
was refined reason, without passion, without fear, want,
' Sen. De Ben., 1. iv., c. 5.

THE TKUE KELIGIOX. 39

sickness, or death itself; from what happiness dost thou
fall again, when thou deniest to acknowledge who it
was that made thee, and gave thee all these things?
What, what is man that Thou art mindful of him?
Thou madest him a little lower than the angels, to
crown him with glory and worship ! O Lord, our
Governor, how excellent is Thy name in all the world !
For thus the Almighty, to demonstrate His power,
educed light out of darkness ; raised the most noble of
His creatures from the basest matter ; that in all this
height he might be humble here ; and gave him reason,
and an immortal soul, to exalt him again hereafter (for
as man, without this principle, and, after all we Juive
said, is but a beast), that neither of them should sink
too low in this animal condition ; that both may
look up, and be assured of a more glorious state (pur-
suing the paths of virtue). He has distinguished him
with a prerogative that sets a good man next his
Maker.

To conclude, man has eyes given him, not only to
see, but contemplate the astonishing fabric of the uni-
verse ; and a tongue to proclaim the praise of its
Creator, and understanding to comprehend His works ;
so as mankind seems made on purpose for His worship,
and to be a curious and diligent observer of them, and
speak his glory, and, in particular, his obligations to
Him above all other creatures of sense without these
noble faculties. This was, doubtless, the end of our
being, and of all those perfections which distinguish us
from them. Such active and boundless passions were

40 THE TRUE RELIGION.

not designed to mean employments only ; besides that
no other creature was made capable of religion ; nor is
it imag-inable that God would create a world, and place
no creature in it, whose proper business should be to
know, adore, and contemplate his wise and bountiful
benefactor. Man, therefore, is the priest of nature, to
offer up the praises and acknowledgments of the whole
creation. Not that He (who is alone most happy in
the contemplation of His own perfections) needs any
accession from anything He has made, or any ser-
vice we can return Him; though it be an end, not
unworthy, to render His beneficence and works con-
spicuous, and receive the deserved honour of them
from His creatures. But, seeing that none of these
(man excepted) have any sense, either of their own
excellency, or from whom they received what they
have ; as destitute of that intellectual principle which
should direct them ; God has ordained man (for
whose use and benefit He has, in a more especial
manner, designed them) to perform that duty for them
which they could not of themselves ; and ennobled him
with those faculties, that he might be capable of and
participate in fruitions commensurate to his nature.
And, verily, this consideration should make us careful
that we destroy not that which He has designed to a
state so excellent; embase or dedecorate that trans-
cendant principle which has placed us above the rest
of His creation ; namely, the intellectual soul, which
comes next to be examined.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 41

SECTION III. — PART I.
BY THE SOUL OF MAN.

The soul, not the animal life which he has in common
with the brutes, and is no other than a certain subtile
and active flame, giving life, motion, and vigour to the
whole body, — but the rational soul, I say, is the man.
And the disquisition and belief of this is of that im-
portance, and so convincing a demonstration of the
Deity, that, though virtue herself were reward and
encouragement svifEcient for one to embrace a pious
and rehgious life, it is absolutely necessary we should
be grounded in the truth of this particular, that so we
may, with more seriousness, provide for its future being
and eternal state. Forasmuch as the body, or vessel,
which, for a while, contains it, is but of frail and
perishing matter ; and it is for the sake of this other
precious particle and substance only, that has obliged
us to the search of all that is designed in this treatise.
For irrational creatures in this are happy, that they
glorify their Maker by performing those natural func-
tions which instinct prompts them to, nor are they
capable of any other.

But man, being an intellectual agent, is endowed
with more sublime and noble objects ; that act of
understanding and vohtion, which is united to that
fabric of man's body we have been describing. It is
then by this that sensible, as well as altogether intel-
lectual objects and mental notions, are reposited in the

42 THE TEUE RELIGION.

memory, through such tracts of time and variety of
accidents, without dissipation or confusion. And hence
we may contemplate how the exercise of sense is per-
formed in the brain, or by the soul, through the media-
tion of the spirits. How also visible objects are trans-
mitted through those obscure passages between the
organs and cerebel, or in what other parts of the brain it
is more eminently seated. This is that sparh of life,
extending and communicating its virtue equally, even to
the utmost confines of the animal nature, with the
same facility in the most enormous whale and largest
elephant, as in the minutest fly and mite. With how
much more ease, then, does God, who is all Spirit, and
the Father of Spirits, govern and actuate the universe ;
which, as a living but elemental body, would soon
dissolve and turn to corruption (were that great soul to
be absent but one moment), and perhaps be annihilated !
But we have hitherto spoken of animal life only ;
and, as we communicate with other living creatures,
composed of flesh and blood, and in man alone con-
nected with a sublimer substance, wholly separate
from matter. Indeed, there are who wish and hope
the soul were no other ; and, to this end, use all the
witty arguments their love of what is present is able
to suggest. For, should the soul happen to survive,
and, after all their labours, prove a more lasting and
immaterial substance than the body and vital spirit,
it would disturb them with the doubts, which not
only our preachers, but philosophers of old, have con-
stantly asserted, that some just deity, being the author

THE TRUE RELIGION. 43

of it, will inquire hereafter how it has behaved itself,
and treat it accordingly. And this apprehension of
a future being not only introduces the necessity of
a God, and the retribution we mention, but engages
these men of pleasure to be serious, and reform their
sensual lives, which, rather than they wUi part with,
they adventure all. To establish this opinion, there-
fore (namely, that the human soul is nothing but re-
fined matter), Satan, the enemy of mankind, has, both
of old and now again more vigorously of late, raised up
a sect, whom he has furnished with subtle arguments
to maintain a thesis (were it possible) which would sub-
vert all piety and religion in the world. This then it is,
which we shall endeavour to oppose, as of the greatest
importance in the world.

That the human soul should consist of matter is alto-
gether incomprehensible. Since (as all consent) it acts
not without motion, and that motion to be irregular
and uncertain, how is it possible it of itself should pro-
duce a thought, or any such thing as reflection, with-
out some exterior principle productive of the thought,
while they affirm matter to be insensible, its motion
variable, contingent, and changing figure to effects, that
have no manner of conformity to thought ? J\ ow, if
this giddy and inconstant motion be not able to produce
a thought, neither can its effects. If motion of matter
produce the cause of Thought, or reasoning, that cause
must proceed from Motion, or else there can be none.
Thought is, then, the immediate effect of motion ; whilst
motion produces no effect, but to range, sort, and dis-

44 THE TRUE EELIGION.

pose matter, without immediately producing the least
reflection. Besides, it is not simple matfer that acts
when we think ; since, though its parts may act on one
another, they cannot upon themselves, and reflect as
thought does, and may do, to infinity.

There is, then, something in man distinct from
matter, with all her motions, and which has some other
source ; nor can that he, but from God. For the simple
existence of matter never could have produced a world,
with all that admirable furniture we have described ;
or organized the most despicable mite, that crawls,
without some exterior paramount principle to manage
and direct its motion.

We find, then, in the world, an existent matter,
moving in such sort, and in some portion of this matter ;
a ihink'inri principle, not only able to reflect upon itself,
but conceive things more sublime, even of spirits, and
things abstracted, and which has infinite ideas, without
being the results of mere matter, but something more
transcendent. Add to this, that matter cannot be essen-
tially self-existent ; forasmuch as aU beings must exist,
either from their own existence, or some exterior prin-
ciple, or, thirdly, from the perfection of their own nature.
Now, the perfect existence of matter neither proves
that it always had, or shall perpetuate, the same exis-
tence : seeing those moments of being have neither any
natural or actual connexion by which it may subsist.
If it be replied that every thing exists as it is a being,
it is answered that, as nothing or no-existence, it has no
being; because in effect it is nothing: whereas the

THE TRUE RELIGION. 45

mind, or soul, be It substance or accident, is at least a
being. Men believe not she always was or shall con-
tinue, because they look on it as matter, and its motion
only ; when yet it always might be, even by that prin-
ciple. Whereas, thought, which adds something to this
motion and matter, has not always been ; and therefore
a being, though it now exist, may not always have so
been.

Nothing, as was said, has no existence, because it is
nothing, and, being a simple negation, needs not any
thing that it may not exist. Whereas, a Being which
is positively something, exists not, but as the principle
of its being subsists; which yet is not the universal
quality of a being, as is evident from beings which do not
always exist, but either from an efficient cause which has
given it being, or from the emanation of his perfection
who has exempted it from needing any thing at all.
For it is not from the eminency of its own perfections
that matter necessarily exists ; seeing it is so remote
from those perfections, that it has hardly any ; but re-
mains, as it were, rasa tabula, deriving aU its qualities
(which yet are but mixed ones) or sensations rather,
from the mind than from any motion at all of matter.

We find thought indeed in some portions of matter,
as it becomes perfectly organic; biit then it proceeds
not from mere matter ; seeing whatever is in matter
must either be essential to it, or accidental and acquired.
Aow, to think is not essential to matter, seeing all
matter has no thought, nor any does acquire. For then
she must have it of herself or from some other. If from

46 THE TRUE RELIGION.

another, then it is another principle which imparts it,
and that is God. If from herself, it must proceed from
rest or motion: from rest it cannot be, for rest does
nothing, being a cessation of all action. Nor is it from
motion that matter thinks, what it did not think before ;
there being in motion only these four things : firstly,
the thing moved ; secondly, the term from whence it
moves; thirdly, the place whither moved; fourthly,
who or what the mover is : none of all which is thought.
For were thought the result from the motion of matter,
then must thought be itself that motion, or its effect ;
and it is not a simple motion only : forasmuch as thought,
doubt, reflection, &c., is no simple transport, or motus a
quo, ad quem. Nor is it an effect of motion, since that
being but the transport a loco ad locum produces no other
immediate effect than the situation of the thing moved ;
and if several mobiles move at the same instant, they all
would encounter when they separated, fall into and
produce a new order. Now, thought is neither any new
situation of any body, or sensible atom, nor any new
series of several atoms, greater or smaller bodies, sen-
sible or insensible.

Moreover, did matter produce thought, it must either
be from the virtue and power of motion in general, or
the differences of motions, or the thing moved, or exte-
rior differences. Now it is not from the sole power of
motion, or motion in general, or as a motion producing
an effect, which can create a thought; inasmuch as
there are an infinity of bodies, which move without
thought. Nor is it the difference of motion; because

THE TRUE RELIGION. 47

that is diversified by slowness, swiftness, and determi-
nation. Now, since rapidity is but a quicker transport,
and determination but the motion of a body inclining to
one side rather than to another, it is not possible those
differences should bring forth thought. Nor, finally, is
it the difference of place whence it rises, or whither it
tends, or by which the matter passes, which produces
thought, where there was none before, because that is
extrinsic to the subject, which then does alter itself and
thinks.

Again, were thought from motion of matter, it must
spring from the motion of one or more atoms ; if from
one, whence comes it to pass, that one has more than
another ? If of more particles, then every atom or par-
ticle has its share of thought ; and so thought becomes
divisible, and mensurable according to their numbers,
wliich is extremely absurd. In general, indeed, it may
be affirmed, of all qualities and modes of matter, that
they retain an essential property of being mensurable
and divisible. For motion has its degrees and measures,
and figure may be divided and measured ; but so cannot
thought ; for no one can say, without impropriety, half
or three-quarters of a thought.

Moreover, did thought result from motion of matter,
it would be a thinking, intelligent principle, which is
equally vain to suppose. Nay, motion of matter would
be knowledge itself; which were as extravagant. In a
word, the effect cannot be nobler than the cause by
which it subsists. Now, plain it is, that thought is in-
comparably more noble than the motion of matter.

48 THE TEUE RELIGION.

Besides, one may know, by induction of effects, that
they hold some proportion with the cause ; whereas, we
find no sort of proportion between motion and thought.
Add to this, that the motion of the atoms of matter are
limited, and can extend but to such a term. Nor can
the particles of our bodies, so abiding, ascend and mount
the skies, and range the universe, penetrate the centre
of the abyss ; — matter and motion acting only upon
things present — while thought is able to perform all
this in a moment — nothing limits, nothing bounds it.

Thought, then, can by no means be the result of
motion of matter ; nor consequently the soul, of which
thought is only a faculty, and no material thing. More-
over, motion cannot represent all things and beings to
our contemplations as the soul can do. Finally, if the
simple motion and matter produce no thought, it is
wholly inconceivable how the existence of matter in
such a place, or near another body, should produce this
effect. Now, so it is, that motion only assigns place
for matter, nearer or farther from the other body ;
thought, therefore, rises not from motion of matter.

If, then, these two principles subsist, that matter acts
by motion only, and thought results not from it, it must
follow, that thought has some other principle ; and, con-
sequently, that there are intellectual beings, spiritual
and immaterial, namely, God, and the spirits, and the
souls He has created.

Moreover, it is proved, that it is not in the power of
matter to cause the least obstruction by the mutual
j(5stling of atoms against atom, since it hits no decree

THE TRUE EELIGIOX. 4f)

or SO much as part of any being, body, or suljstancc,
but the entire atom ; and only that individual one it
strikes against. But thus it is not of the soul or think-
ing principle, which separates only by metaphysical de-
grees, and is able to contemplate a thing, as a being
abstractedly, stripped of all substance or body. Nay,
and to represent it as a body, without so much as con-
ceiving it an atom ; we having notions of things that
have no mathematical dimensions or affections of bodies,
such as thought, virtue, vice, &c., in which there is
nothing at all of mathematical extension or magnitudes.
It is internal energy, not any local motion, capable to
act and penetrate any extended substance, and to co-
exist with it.

It is in the capacity of the soul that we see and com-
prehend almost infinite things ; the dimensions of bodies,
the beauty of colours, the difference of taste, odour of
perfumes, harmony of music, pain and pleasure, without
the substance or presence of the objects, by these mere
ideas. Then our memories furnish maxims, principles,
conclusions, and all sensible and intellectual beings,
though never so remote and absent. Xow, what cor-
poreal substance, plunged in matter, could present us
with such subtile instruments, for the forming a work
so incomparable, but that Supreme Being, who has en-
dowed the soul with those perfections, even that cause
more noble than the effect ?

Add ao-ain to aU tliis, those acts of reflection ab-
stracted from matter, and of which it is totally incapable,
namely, the ideas of God in all their perfections, and

VOL. I. E

50 THE TRUE RELIGION.

other notions not obnoxious to sense. And, then, the
infinite and insatiable thirst of our souls after knowledge
and the love of good ; its restless passion after something
more perfect than what she can find here in any condi-
tion whatsoever, &c., of which more hereafter, when we
shall have occasion to speak of its immortality, and to
prosecute this material-immaterial subject, as we have
done here its existence ; and as iheform of man, differ-
ing him from other animals, and exalting him above
them; aU of them asserting the being of a Deity, which
was to be proved in this chapter.

But the union of the soul with the body is now
another argument of this Divine power, namely, the so
reciprocal connexion betwixt an intellectual substance
and organized matter : substances and essences, though
totally unlike and independent ; and yet that to be so
apprehensive of pain, upon the least division or violence
on matter. For, how should local motion beget a
thought, seeing motion only produces motion? for,
should it pretend to more, the effect would exceed the
cause. This union is, therefore, from no law or necessity
of nature, but from some supernatural establishment of
a Divine Author.

To this might be superadded the unaccountable effects
of miracles, inspirations, oracles, apparitions, magical
feats, and the extraordinary operations of sorcerers, so
imiversaUy attested, not only by the Jews, but by
Christians, and innumerable witnesses. Finally, by the
more metaphysical and abstracted arguments, the re-
flections of a serious man, enquiring how himself came

THE TRUE RELIGION. 51

Into being, since he made not himself, (no effect being
possible without a cause), nor can continue or preserve
himself a moment, or foretel the future. Wherefore,
these things, and the like, must of necessity flow from
some Superior Cause and more excellent Being than
himself; and, if so, then is there a being besides him, of
infinite power ; and if, from any limited or subordinate
being, that being derived its existence from a being self-
essential, which is the thing in question. Believe we but
once, that the wisdom, understanding, and other noble
and rational faculties of man were the result of matter
only, and we may conclude the same of the wisdom and
power of God himself, notwithstanding all those mighty
works of wonder we have enumerated in the Creation ;
since, in respect to us at least, intellect, wisdom, reason,
&c., is more noble than the mere naked character and
marks of them are, for his operations are no other. If
it be replied. How vast a difference there is between
those faculties in man and those in God! 'Tis true.
But who knows not that, besides the understanding,
wisdom, &c., which we find to be formally in the soul,
we also there meet with the same characters of the
Creator's wisdom conspicuous in the Universe ; and that
the subordinateness of the parts of Nature is not more
astonishing than the subordinateness of thought and
affections in the soul? Did the least understanding
spring from the motion of matter, so may the greatest,
seeing the motion of matter seems to have no more re-
lation with the least than with the greatest and most
perfect understanding. One of the most convincing

O'J. THE TRUE RELIGION.

arguments, therefore, proving the existence of a Deity,
is, that matter we see immoveable, as to any power or
virtue of beginning its own motion, and that it has
neither degree nor determination of motion. ^^Tiere-
fore, we conclude, upon solid and irrefragable grounds,
that something superior and extrinsical to matter gives,
regulates, and directs its motion, and has determined it
into this admirable fabric of the aspectable universe.
So, as it were plainly madness, so much as but to ima-
gine that matter should tkink of itself, or have anything
to do in the composition of the human soul ; or that, in
case it had, it should not have motion and determination
of that motion ; motion being but a mode of matter, and
so consequently thought; and, as was said, the same
matter to produce understanding and those other Divine
faculties, which, how visionary and absurd, has abund-
antly been evinced. And thus we have likewise proved
that life and sense could never be the result of stark
and senseless matter, much less cogitation, reflection,
and the power of comprehending eternal verities, &c.,
from magnitude, figure, size, motion, or any other
mixtures and combinations of elements and qualities.

We have likewise made out that the human soul is a
substance specifically distinct from body, of parts in-
separable, subtile, and capable of penetrating bodies;
that she is self-active, having an internal energy, dis-
tinct from local motion ; but whether totally unextended,
otherwise than as a body, may be doubtful philosophy,
and is no point of faith, but reason. For, were not the
soul in every part, part of it must, which cannot be

THE TRUE RELIGION. 53

predicated of a substance that has no parts, and were to
divide an indivisible thing.

Lastly, as to atoms, as they are the workmanship of
Almighty God, they give indeed a more probable reason
of a world of considerable elFects of Nature, above all
other principles. But that atoms, with all their re-
nowned advantages, or happy concourses, should of
themselves produce a thought, life, or reason, is madness
to affirm ; so immensely disproportionate are the opera-
tions of the soul to that of matter.' Mankind, by virtue
of a far superior and more sagacious principle than
matter, can pretend to great things; and is eternally
thinking, contriving, recollecting, comparing, changing,
resolving, providing, and the like, in a rational series,
which inconstant matter, however supplied, never can do.
Did matter contend with matter, what confusion would
it produce ? whilst the mind and soul of man sedate the
hostility, and bring it to due obedience, as being a power
abstracted, a distinct and immaterial principle. Hence
it is able to comprehend abstracted notions, the mathe-
matical point, infinitesimal divisibility, and other geo-
metrical affections, sti'ipped both of body and sense.
Pier knowledge is progressive, producing consequences
from premises, and things precedent, even to demon-

' All the mechanic motions, percolations, subliming, and elabo-
ration of the efflorescent hyle, or matter, be it never so subtile
and quintessential, is still (we say) but matter, and to matter must
return, and to drowsy senselessness : for how sensation and percep-
tion (nay, reason, reflection, yea, and immortality itself,) should
result from the posture, figure, and motion of mere magnitude, is
incomprehensible.

54 THE TRUE EELIGIOK.

stration. Add to this, the soul's notions of moral virtue,
metaphysical theology, stable and eternal truths, wholly
strange to matter, as are all the immediate emergent
motions of our mind, thought, and reason; which, haying
no progression from matter, are things that are pro-
duced, and can subsist without it, and which we better
comprehend than we do our very bodies, of which the
rational soul has little cognizance.

The soul knows not how nature and matter works,
either in the framing or nutrition of the body, and
therefore pretends not to intermeddle with it. But,
when, through any exorbitancy, or violent inclination
from some sensual object, it is disordered, the soul then
exerts her power, and can curb, deny, consent, deter-
mine, as she pleases, which shows her to be distinct from
matter, and also her despotic sovereignty and empire
over it, and that she owns no superior but God alone.
For that which corrects and controls sense must be
above it ; and though sense never be deceived as to its
own affections and faculties within itself, (provided it
be not vitiated) yet can it not judge or reason of the
external object, which may be vastly disproportionate
to the organ ; we should not, therefore, wholly consult
our senses when we speculate truth, but caU our reason
to assist us, who, in conjunction, never err.

In the mean time, the soul, as seated more conspicu-
ously in the brain, does, by the originated Neurology,
give intercourse to the animal spirits, and by the muscles
produce corporeal motion, as they alternately communi-
cate their passions to the soul, where they are imme-

THE TRUE RELIGION. 00

diately sensated. How yet the soul, thus incorporeal,
is united to the body, is the mystery ? We find that
she takes cognizance of all considerable impressions, and
that by a wonderful providence, lest the body, dull and
inactive of itself, should fail of necessaries to sustain it.
But what this nexus is, this intermediate, through
wliich her virtue is derived into the body, must, for
aught we know, remain a secret as long as soul and body
dwell together here, nor is it less a paradox how they
should come to know each other better when asunder
than when together, and so near.

In a word, tliis soul of ours is a perennial source of
perpetual motion to something yet to come, and more
than aU this world contains, furnished as is described.
Since, though he had all the wealth, youth, strength,
beauty, learning, and perfection it can afford him, and
were he never so calm, sedate, and assured, within and
without, of a future well-being; yet would all be too
narrow for his large and immense desires, which some-
where else have an adequate object, as all things here
are provided with. It is indeed acknowledged that we
cannot form a proximate idea of anything which is not
body in this mortal and bodily state of ours, so twisted
and entangled with our corporeal senses. But this
does not prove that, therefore, there really is nothing
besides body and matter ; there being so many things
of which we have no positive ideas, which yet forces U8
to acknowledge and believe that they have real beings
somewhere. The Epicureans themselves confess they
have no positive idea of their atoms, being so minute as

56 THE TRUE RELIGION.

not to be capable of falling under their most accurate
senses, notwithstanding they rationally conclude they
are. But though we cannot positively say what that
principle in our rational operation is, by way of defini-
tion, we can what it is not, namely, that it has no pro-
portion or relation to mere matter, but something (as
we have already proved) superior to it.

The operations of man differ from those of brutes,
even from the more perfection of principles ; albeit,
even in the operations of brutes, there may perhaps be
something of more perfect than body and matter only.
But these men, because they had the advantage of
other sects in being able to explain many most con-
siderable effects of nature, by local motion and dispo-
sition of matter only, with more ease and probability
than others of less mechanical heads, would impose
upon the world, that by the same principles they could
unfold all the phenomena of nature, and whatever else
concerns the being and operations of the human soul.
"Wliilst we have i)lainly made appear how absurd it
were that sensible should spring from insensible with-
out a powerful aid of something highly sensible and
intelligent.

No, we must not pretend to explain the nature of
the principles of our reasoning faculties ; nor play the
geometrician with our soul, as we may with lines and
figures, and things obnoxious to our senses, in this
umbratile state and dependence :

Invida praeclusit speciem natura videndi ;'
^ Lucretius, lib. i., 321.

THE TRUE EELIGION. 57

but have recourse to a higher idea of ourselves than to
make our souls (that precious substance by wluch we
are distinguished from the beasts that perisli) of that
base alloy. Let us resolve it to be infinitely more
noble and perfect ; and that, though we cannot exactly
tell what we are, we certainly know we are far from
that they would persuade us we be — mire and dust,
inactive and unthinking stuff, such as they wiU wish
themselves.

SECTION III. — PART II.
BY THE NOVITY OF THE WORLD.

The novity of the world,^ and that it had a begin-
ning, is another proof of a Deity, and his being author
and maker of it. Nor does it, by any authentic records,
appear to have begun much sooner than ]\loses has set
it down. Aristotle, indeed, seems to fancy the world
co-eternal with its cause, as light is from the sun —
by a necessary, not voluntary production. And Plato's
argument was, that, it being the most perfect, first,
and best of His works. He would never destroy it.
But, had it been eternal, it must then have been the
first, and so, of necessity, God himself ; and, doubtless,
in all this tract of time, been more and sooner peopled.
Whereas, we find it many ages and periods ere the
western and northern parts were at all inhabited, or
brought to any culture. Nor is it possible that busy
' See Macrobius Somn. Scip., lib. ii., cap. x.

58 THE TRUE RELIGION.

mankind should have lived so very long without better
houses and conveniences of hfe; or passed so many-
thousand thousand years without books, buildings,
navigation, and other useful arts; the fathers and
inventors of aR which, with their progress, perfection,
and decay, are transmitted to us.^

Seneca teUs us, that, even in his time, there were
almost none of the sciences which could derive their
pedigree above one thousand years ; nor any history or
chronology beyond a certain epoch. We know of none
more ancient than Moses or Job,^ (whom some conceive
the elder), nor any heathen writer before Homer,
Hesiod, Herodotus, and some other Greek poets. And
Lucretius ingenuously confesses, that before the Trojan
war there was nothing worth knowledge delivered by
any author worthy credit ; which, with the like argu-
ments of the late invention of arts and forms of govern-
ment, he makes use of to assert the npvity of the
world.

For, as to laws and legislators, they began in the
paternal, and continued to famihes; and as they in-
creased into tribes and clans, to colonies and migrations ;
as people and kindred combined into societies for mutual

' After all the wonderful things pretended to haye been in-
vented by the Chinese so many thousand years beyond our
chronologies, those who have made the latest and best discoveries
of those people, and most accurately examined things upon the
place, can really find nothing exceeding the universal flood.

" Some have affirmed Job to have been one of Esau's sons, and
the friends who came to condole, petty kings.

THE TKUE EELIGION. 59

defence and assistance. And then men lived meanly,
in huts, and ambulatory tents ; the father of a family
being both the prince and priest, that function being
still preserved in the primogeniture, as long, at least,
as they hved before the promulgation of the IMosaic
law ; and till they erected tyrannies and kingdoms, and
built cities and fortresses, as they grew opulent and
haughty ; when they also raised enormous structures,
pyramids, and temples ; and vice and rapine breaking
them in divisions, made them choose captains and
guardians to conduct them; and judges to do right,
when better settled ; and, since that could not be
amongst them without force and power, they came in
time to submit to kings and princes, at first, perhaps,
of choice and by compact, or right of conquest, which
grew to empire and arbitrary dominion. Thus, from
private families, and inter-community of goods, as they
separated and dwelt at distances, they used exchange
and permutation ; thence to money, weights, and
measures, merchandize, and traffic ; from iron to brass,
gold and silver, or whatever was most precious and
apt for their commerce and ease.

As to sciences, the Greeks knew nothing of philo-
sophy before Pythagoras ; Socrates was the first who
gave them any rehsh of it. Thales first taught them
astronomy, who learned from the Egyptians — they from
the Chaldeans ; but it never arrived to the perfection
it now is at. As for medicine, Hippocrates gave them
rules, and began to methodize what before was com-
prehended in a few scattered receipts among empirics

60 THE TRUE RELIGION.

and silly women. Laws, from the code of Justitlan, to
that of Theodosius ; his from the twelve famous tables,
compiled from those of Greece ; theirs from Solon and
Lycurgus, and his from Egypt. Truly, the world was
thought to be so young a creature, that Macrobius did
not compute its age to be above two thousand years
before his time, and that very rationally, from the
paucity of books and good histories, which should have
informed us ; so as, from the creation to the incarnation,
all our Christian clironologies, even at the widest dis-
tance, agree within forty years of one another.

Touching cataclysms and universal inundations, they
could not possibly arise by any natural means ; and if
through supernatural, it proves what is contended for.
And, besides, that of Noah's only excepted, such as we
read of to have happened since, were but partial, affect-
ing but some particular countries. Add hereto, that
the Assyrian, Chaldean, and Egyptian computation of
their annals brings no manner of solid proof of the
world's having been 'extant so many years, whatever
fancy and ambition of antiquity have created; making
their kings to have reigned above twelve hundred years
a piece. The Assyrians, theirs forty thousand ; all
which, as brags and boastings, are worthily refuted by
St. Augustine.' The Persian empire, in Alexander's
time, not being fully three hundred years old. But
these exorbitant computations were spread abroad for
the honour of those great nations, which we named ;
unless, which is more probable, they reckoned months
' De Civ. Dei, lib. ix., c. 10.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 61

for solar years, as divers have conjectured. But, as we
said, these misreckonings have been sufficiently refuted
by St. Augustine ; and by one who was not in the
least obliged to Moses, the Epicurean poet,' from the
known original of cities, arts, nations, colonies, victories,
books, and records, as we have already showed ; and by
considering how vast a tract of earth and sea was both
unknown and uninhabited. I know there are who tell
us of earthquakes and conflagrations, as weU as floods,
which have sometimes confounded all, or reduced the
world to ashes, and that it has as often (Phoenix-like)
emerged, and been successively repaired ; but these
are precarious dreams.

Indeed, the school-men hold the world, though
created at a certain time, yet that it had such parts, as
might have been antecedent to the time in which it
reaUy was created, and have been eternal too, had God
so pleased. But neither will this hold, since something
must still have been before it. Besides the world being
composed of mixed bodies, particles of matter, and con-
cretions, full of contrary qualities, could not last for
ever, all mixture being obnoxious to corruption. And
if the world consisted of simple bodies only, it would
not be of use, adapted with all its necessary furniture,
as now it is. For we see what diversity of materials
is required to the composing of most natural mixed
bodies and individuals, which both commenced in time,
and require it for their perfection. Successive things
must have some beginning ; and divers principal things,
' Lucretius.

62 THE TRUE RELIGION.

useful and absolutely necessary, are successive — as
vegetables, animals, and whatever is maintained by
propagation ; all kinds of motions, augmentations, and
diminutions ; since, if that motion had beginning, it had
existence and a place, or ubi, before it moved ; and, if
motion be not eternal, neither can the world be so.
So as the necessary supposition of successive alterations
unavoidably subverts the world's eternity ; because it
is composed of such individuals as derive their originals
from the nature of their species. For so a tree rises
from its proper seed or tender plant before it can arrive
to full stature and perfection, and the like will happen
in every other thing essentially alterable.

Lastly, as to the invention of letters and other arts,
which should deliver to us times past. Though Plato
made a god of Hermes, to whom he attributes them,
yet we never heard of any more ancient than the
Hebrews or Phoenicians, Palamede's alphabet, and
some Egyptian hieroglypliics. As for the inscription
on Seth's plUar,' (if no suspected antiquity) it proves
nothing to the eternity of the world, no more than the
calculations of the Chinese annals, Egyptians, and other
nations. It is confessed, both by Diodorus Siculus,
Plutarch, &c., that they counted all by lunar years, as

' [The posterity of Seth (says Josephus, 1. i., c. ii.) having
heard that Adam had foretold that the world should some time
be destroyed by water, and at another time by fire, resolved to pre-
serve the discoveries they had made in astronomy, and in the know-
ledge of heavenly things : they, therefore, erected two columns, one
of stone, the other of brick ; and it is said that the column of
stone is still in being in Seiraih, or St/rias. — Calmefs Diet.'}

THE TRUE RELIGION. 63

we have already noted. Nor was the institution of the
Sabbath in memory of the creation, even before the
Jewish Sabbath was enjoined, a contemptible argument ;
nor the division of time by weeks, so universally re-
ceived. In a word, had the world been from eternity,
the very course of rivers, and descent of rains from the
more eminent parts, had ere this levelled the profound-
est valleys, and made the earthly globe but one vast
campaign, by carrying down the looser earth, gravel,
and other mould, sufficient to have fiUed up the deepest
abysses and gulphs of the ocean itself.

In the mean time, it was a nice (or indeed rather an
idle) question. What God did before He made the
world? St. Augustine answers the impertinent, that
he did "curiosis fabricare infemum.'" Doubtless God
was a world to Himself, when no world was. Never
was he alone or idle. The contemplation of His own
glory and perfections is sufficient to entertain Him to
eternity, without other society, for He is all. And
when he thought fit to create this aspectable piece of
work, it was of His own good pleasure, and to diffuse
and spread His glory, power, and beneficence, not
to receive any the least accession from His creatures,
but communicate it.

It was likewise another question, but more modest,
from some expression pretended of St. Augustine :
Whether God created all in eodem nunc et momento,^ or
made it six days' work, mentioned so in Scripture, only

' " Create hell for impertinent inquirers."
' " In the same now and moment."

64 THE TRUE EELIGIOK.

to comply with our weak capacities, who do nothing
but in time and successively. To this it is replied,
that, according to the literal text. He did it not at
once ; not that He could not so have done it by a
thought alone : • nor that, indeed. He used these words
to the dull chaos : but to teach us to deliberate in all
our actions, and contemplate what this glorious God
has made. Besides, we read that, dividing the supernal
waters from those beneath, on the second day. He gave
no benediction or approbation, tiU they were collected
into one place after this separation ; as if tiU that were
done, the work were yet imperfect, which was not till
the third day. Lastly, His reposing on the seventh
supposes His desisting from adding any further to His
works, or multiplying new species.

Thus have we showed how the creation of the world
had its original in time, and in this research, as of man
by retrospect from ancestor to ancestor, till we come to
the first. For, though it be essential to the existence of
a Deity thus powerful, that He be eternal, it is not so of
the visible and material world, or aught within it. Crea-
tion, as well as generation, being actions, have a natural
relation to certain principles producing them. And (as
we have said) if we descend from the branches to the
trunk and stem, it will infallibly lead us to the root :
and if there be no branch but what has an end and
top-twig, it were infinitely absurd to think there were
infinite stems and roots to that twiff.

o

' So Epicharmus and Plato, verbo Dei facta omnia ;—" Every
thing was made by the word of God."

THE TEUE RELIGION. (Jo

SECTION IV.
BY PROVIDENCE AND GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD.

We come, In the last place, to prove there is a God,
by the government and preservation of what He has
created. Providence is, indeed, but a continual crea-
tion, discovering to us His infinite power, omniscience,
goodness, and wisdom, no less in maintaining what He
has made, than in His making them destined to their
various ends. For, although the Almighty desisted
from creating any new species on the seventh day, yet
it is not meant that He left off from sustaining and
preserving what He made. The , Epicureans would
indeed have their god to be lazy as themselves, but
such is not our God, who is a perpetual Act, always
doing good, filling our hearts with food and gladness.

But, not to insist here on what Scripture alone dis-
covers of the ways of God, by wliich He wonderfully
blessed and preserved His peculiar people, and divers
particular persons in all ages : His judgments on the
wicked, destroying kings and mighty empires by His
stretched out arm, by signs and wonders ; but by the
suffrages even of every heathen is showed the just vene-
ration they paid to that incomprehensible Being, upon
the contemplation of such things and events as declared
His providence, and that the world could not subsist
without it. That illustrious passage of Seneca serves
for all : ' " Maiient cuncta, non quia wterna fiunt, sed
1 Seneca, Ep. 58.

VOL. I. F

66 THE TRUE EELIGION.

quia defenduntur curd Regentisy' Things so repugnant,
amidst that infinite variety, never could have conspired
together, to uphold the wondrous frame of the universe
in that admirable order and economy we see it, had not
He who contrived it guided every wheel, every action,
motion, and property about it. It were, therefore, far
less absurd for man to believe himself not to be, than to
believe that he or anything in nature sprang from no
cause at all ; and he, who peremptorily denies that there
is any Providence, does worse than he who believes
there is no God. So as Aristotle being asked what
answer we should give to one who questioned Provi-
dence, replied, " A scourge ;" intimating that such un-
grateful wretches deserved rather to be treated like
slaves than men of honour, so generally were the very
heathen for this paternal care of God.^

But, because God does not immediately punish evil-
doers, and vengeance is not suddenly executed, there-
fore is the heart of man set upon mischief and unbelief.
The lightning and thunderbolt, 'tis true, do sometimes
strike, sometimes pass by without their dreadful effects,
to show to mortal man His justice, clemency, and
power. Insects and noxious vermin also devour the
fruits of the earth and hopeful harvests. And is not
all this ordered by a wonderful Providence ? Should
God be severe to mark what we continually do amiss,
there would be nothing left, since we daily provoke

' " All things continue, not because they are made eternal, but
because they are upheld by the care and defence of a Euler.''
= See Grotius De V. Rel. Chris., lib. i.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 67

Ilim by our ingratitude. But for these His cliastisc-
ments, we should utterly forget the benefits He
confers upon us. The very heathen, therefore, acknow-
ledged this His lenity and long suffering; and that,
if their Jupiter should send out his artillery for every
offence,

Exiguo tempore inermis erit,

he would soon be disarmed. And we know what Plu-
tarch has concluded, upon the late strokes of the Deity ; '
and that, though the feet of God be slow, and soft as
wool, His revenging hands are as heavy as lead. Be-
sides, neither is it for nothing that Grod has ordained
some creatures and things, which we think (but which
are not) superfluous. Even insects eat up and cleanse
the earth of much corruption ; and they are medical, and
feed many creatures which nourish us ; whilst, at other
times, they are sent as plagues for our luxury and in-
temperance, and to show the despisers of His Almighty
power what great things He can effect by the most
despicable means. And, as to the rest of God's pro-
ceedings in this sort, as we shall never here comprehend
the cause of aU things, so neither shall we know the
cause of these ; nor why God sends rain and storms,
good and evil, promiscuously ; washing as well the
barren rock and wilderness with His benign showers,
as the fruitfuUest garden ; though we may not, there-
fore, conclude He does it from no cause, or by chance,
because, we cannot comprehend the reason.

^ De Ser. Yir.d. Dei,

f2

68 THE TRUE RELIGION.

For, though the pregnant clouds dissolve In the most
seemingly unnecessary places, they may be the cause
and originals of those rivers, streams, and fountains,
-which flow from those eminences to refresh the valleys,
and give drink and other conveniences both to man and
beast. In a word, there is not the silliest fly, or worm
that crawls, nor any grain of seed which falls, and
becomes lost and scattered upon the ground, but is for
the food or help of some creature, at some time or other
necessary for us ; so as there is nothing made for no-
thing (though made out of nothing) but such ungrate-
ful creatures, who blaspheme upon these accounts, and
from their shallow reasonings.

The most abject, vile, and trivial things in nature
are admirable, and those creatures which we reckon
most defective, the most curious, and completely accom-
modated to their several functions. Indeed, some are
noxious poisons, yet become antidotes ; one fierce animal
devours another, lest the wild beasts should increase
upon us. Yet have we the benefit of their flesh for
food, or fat, or other parts, for ointments, or skins for
clothing, and other uses, of the most truculent bears,
wolves, and other brutes. Then we find, that those
animals which are weakest and less able to defend them-
selves, and preserve their useful species, are either most
swift of foot or wing, or willingly reduce themselves
under the care of men; as sheep and other cattle, poultry,
bees, &c. And they are spread over all the earth, as
well as air and water, without which none can live.
How many fruits are there encrusted with thorns,

THE TRUE RELIGION. 69

shells, and other hard integuments, to defend their
kernels and nutritious parts from being devoured before
they ripen and are fit for use !

And if in ncithing here we find all perfection, it only
shows that the creature is not God, but He who only
is. For the beauty of the world consists not in its
separated parts, (which seem imperfect) but united, its
order, economy, and concurrence to the end; which
shows it to be the work of a wise and voluntary Agent,
the nature whereof relates to final causes. Now, if in
the universe there be a final cause and last resort, there
must needs likewise be a prime eflicient cause, which is
God, who cannot be imagined to forget his own pro-
duction, without whose assiduous care the thing de-
signed would be to no end or purpose. He, therefore,
doubtless, governs, maintains, and directs what He has
made, to the end for which He made it. If, then. He
take such care of the least of His creatures, and most
insensible, shall we think He takes none of man, for
whom He created thcni ; who of all His creatures most
resembles Him, and is endowed with faculties to ac-
knowledge his bounty and beneficence ?

And now we mention Man. Is anything more stu-
pendous than the providential subserviency and use of
all his bodily functions (whether voluntary or involun-
tary), for the mutual preservation of the whole ? The
distribution of chyle and aliments, formation and coiu-se
of the blood, generation of spirits, nutrition and growth
of the whole, his natural faculties, and all these acting,
whether we sleep or wake, and whether we think at all

70 THE TRUE RELIGION.

of tliem or no ! Upon this, therefore, let us enlarge a
little, and consider the hand again.

As man has but one natural and tender covering, and
is born with so little defence, he has an instrument to
furnish him with all manner of weapons, and is alone a
magazine ; and that, whilst other animals have, for the
most part, but one sort of food and medicine, man has
variety and abundant choice of all things. This is what
the orator' has, from the light of nature only, termed a
Divine and God-like work. For albeit there be the
same number and contexture of parts, and that the
most of these actions and circumstances are common to
brutes, yet, when all is done, 'tis plain the use of them
is not accommodated to so multifarious and divers pur-
poses, nor conducted with that thought and cogitancy,
but may be reduced to some very few ones in compari-
son.^ Nor deny we that, as to the structure of the body,
and geometry (so to speak) of animals, there is anything
in the lever, wedge, pulley, axis, screw, spring, counter-
poise, or like mechanism, whose artificial powers and
figure are not established on the same principle with the
natural motion of animals, as, among others, the famous
Descartes and the late BoreUus ^ have, with surprising
acuteness, made out ; but, to make the powers of the

" Cic. De Nat. Deor., 1. ii.

^ De Placit. Hippoc, Plato, 1. v., c. 10. Aristot. Mech., c. 31.
Lactant. De Opif. Dei, c. 6. The Epicureans did not allow that
any organ, or member, was designed to any proper use at all, from
any providential cause, but ex usu vitce merely, and habitude.

' Borell. De Mos. Anal. 9.

THE TEUE RELIGION. 71

rational soul, In which man is chiefly concerned and
distinguished, as merely proceeding from the contrive-
ment of certain apartments in the brain,' is altogether
wild.

In the mean time, we admire the inventions and
machinations of engineers, new and old,'' (Myrmecides'
ship, Callicrates' Pismire, &c.), and acknowledged they
were authors of many wonderful and curious contri-
vances by their art and sagacity, whilst this stupendous
masterpiece of their Creator, and who endowed them
with that ingenuity superior to the rest of the animals,
and so widely different to all operations and possible
perfections desirable to render them sensible of their
extraction, must either (with them) be the result of
chance, or the base contrivement and modification of
the parts of matter, and a little warmth to give it mo-
tion, without other form or principle considerable !

And whilst, with all this, we have convincingly
shewed how these great wits (as they would be esteemed)
do not clearly make out how spontaneous motion can
anyways correspond with a pure mechanical hypothesis,
it is evidently beyond the activity of the most ingeni-
ously framed parts, or even animal spirits themselves,
(as the elegant Burla3us' observes) however pretended,

' Like the combination of atoms and elements to the conse-
quences of Democritus' Hypothesis, or those who follow him.
Talid quidem sunt, nor deny we the effect. Sed non tamen sunt
alicujus gratict, which we. utterly reject.

^ Daedalus, Archytas. Cstesibes Hiero.

^ " Cum nee membra ha3C, nee spiritus internuntii, aut mandata
capiunt, aut mandantera norint." — Burl. De Anim, Hum.

72 THE TRUE EELIGIOK.

to descend thus into them from the brain. When the
musician runs division with his nimble fingers on the
harp or other instrument, they so answer every motion
of his fancy, as that neither of them outruns or prevents
the other, although (as our learned Ent' illustrates it),
at the same instant he plays, he sings, he dances, and
moves at least three hundred muscles, and all this done
with that prodigious swiftness as seems to prevent the
very thought ! Shall we imagine (says the Doctor) all
this performed by a crowd of spirits steaming from the
brain, and confusedly rushing through the divaricated
sextipar nerves into those exiguous passages (according
to the Atomists) without a guiding power, or some dex-
terous and nimble Mercury, to conduct them by the
various ways they are to take ? But to return to the
hands again. »

Anaxagoras was used to say, ]\Ian was of aU creatures
the most prudent, because (as we celebrate that organ)
he was fitted with hands ; but Galen, with much more
reason, that therefore he had hands, because it was in-
tended he should be wise and prudent ; so as that learned
physician is compelled to acknowledge a sublimer cause,
as may be seen with great delight in those seventeen
admirable treatises,^ which are, in a manner, but one

' Antidiatrib., p. 130. [Dr. Ent, afterwards knighted by
Charles II., was President of the College of Physicians, London,
and one of the first members of the Royal Society. He is named
by the author (chap, iii., sec. 2), as one of the first men of his
time.]

^ Galen, "De Usu Partium;" more especially lib. iii.. c. 14, in

THE TRUE RELIGIOX. 73

lieq)ctual liymn to God. In good earnest, the passages
arc of such a strain, that one should transcribe them all,
or say nothing at all, for there is nothing to be left out,
whether we consider the dignity of the matter or sub-
limity of the style. Nor with less, the orator, who is
plainly transported with admiration at the fabric of
man's body, and particularly of his hands, eyes, &c. ;
and, breaking into the most pious reflections, ascribes
nil to the Providence of God.

If the subtle Cardan ' so much admire a Providence
at the structure and working of a mole, as, upon the
contemplation of his feet and snout only, (how expe-
ditely he mines into the earth, breaks and removes the
stubborn clods, and makes a little earthquake in its
working) to confess that despicable animal could not be
created by chance, but by some wise design ; what may
we not conclude of so many other, and especially of
man^ whose parts and operations are so much more
worthy of admiration !

It is in this golden discourse of the Nature of Gods '■'
that the same Cicero, in the person of his stoical dia-

which he extols the Omnipotent Architect, His power, wisdom,
providence, beyond all the mysteries and sciences of the heathen
world.

' [Born at Pavia, A.D. 1501, professor of mathematics and me-
dicine. He was employed to calculate the nativity of King Ed-
ward VI. ; owns himself a dealer in the black art, and believed
that he was attended by a Daimon from the planet Saturn. — Bio-
graphie Universelle.']

" Ex quibus intelligitur, quanta: res hominibus a Deo, quamque
eximae, tributas sunt. — Cic. de Fin., 1. 3.

74 THE TRUE RELIGION.

legists, proceeds to describe the admirable economy of
universal Nature, or rather of God himself, (for it is m
assertion of a Divine and Providential Being that he
argues aU along in that incomparable force of reason
and stream of eloquence) in framing brute animals, as
well as man, after so wonderful a manner. It is then
he describes the crafty addresses of the little spider,
how some are weaving nets, and toils for the prey,
others watching to surprise it. He speaks of the so-
ciety of fishes, for mutual assistance and provision;
of the martial discipline of fowls ; descends to beasts,
and their great sagacity for defence and covert ; how
naturally they seek the teat; how educated by their
sires ; form such artificial nests ; and that such as are
not able to defend themselves crave the aid of man,
and the protection of his reason, as dignifying him
above themselves.

Thence passes to the fabric of his body, and, entering
into all the parts of anatomy, describes the head, and
more eminent seat of the senses. Takes notice how
Nature, like a skilful architectress, placed the organ of
smelling at a remoter distance from the more noisome
and ofiensive sinks and emunctories : describes the eye,
and several tunicles and muscles ; the meandering ear,
and how the voice is undulated. In sum, after an
accurate inspection and comparison, he still reserves
the pre-eminence to man. This he proves by innumer-
able instances worthy the recital : men's eyes, says he,
judge better of colours, beauty, figure, and curiosities
of art : his ears distinguish the varieties of sounds and

THE TEUE RELIGIOX. 75

voice more accurately: the palate, variety of tastes,
and so of the rest. But when he comes to reason, qua
nee In Deo quidem est res ulla prwstantior, what streams of
eloquence does he not pour forth ! To this succeeds
the instrument of speech, which he calls domina rerum,
the queen, and mistress of all the rest ; and, attributing
a kind of divinity to it, strews such flowers on it, as
none but that prince of orators is able to describe it.
" By this," says he, " we learn, by the same we teach.
By her we exhort, by her we persuade, by her we
comfort the afflicted, encourage the timorous, moderate
the transported, bridle the furious, restrain the covet-
ous ; it is she who has bound mankind in civil society,
and, in a word, made him diifer from brutes, &c."'

But then he takes him by the hand again, and enu-
merates its ability for all manner of operations in ten
thousand inventions. By these, says he, we prepare
and vary our food, make our garments, tame wild and
furious creatures, and compel those who offend us to
fight and conquer for us ; and after all these truculent
monsters, which with our hands we cicurate, by our
hands also we subdue the most terrible of all the ele-
ments, the wind and the sea, and domineer over the
whole earth ; so as our hands become a second nature,
even in Nature herself.

' Hac cohortamur, hdc persuademus, hac consolamur afflictos,
hAc deducimus perterritos a timore, h4c gestientes comprimimus,
hac cupiditates iracundiasque restinguimus ; haec nos juris, legum,
verborum societate devinxit, ha;c a vita inani et fer^ segrega-
vit, &c. — De Orat., 1. iii.

76 THE TRUE RELIGION.

Finally, (speaking of his intellectual abilities) he pene-
trates the sublimest Heavens, and from things supreme
arrives to the knowledge of a Deity ; and to a sense of
religion, piety, justice, and the whole circle of virtues,
which render him par et similis Deorum, and in nothing
inferior but that he is mortal. These are the transcen-
dents and pre-eminences which this admirable heathen
attributes to mankind ; and what could a Christian
more, considering with how particular a care and pro-
vidence God has invigilated over him above all other
creatures ?

Turn we our eyes from man a little on other sensitive
substances, innumerable as they are, moving in the air,
swimming in the water, dwelling in the earth ; their
diversity, propriety, figures, beauty, habiliments, arms,
instincts, actions, ends. How many vast volumes should
one be obliged to write to describe them ! How much
vaster understanding to comprehend them ! Tantis
operihus Deus notitiam suam armavit, says Tertullian.
And, indeed, were not the world sustained and governed
by an Infinite Providence, like to a crazy vessel, weather-
beaten, and grounded without a pilot, it had long ere
this been shipwrecked, and fallen to pieces. Volcanoes,
inundations, conflagrations, plagues, and epidemical sick-
nesses ; factions of unruly people, rebellions, diflferences
of religions, and violent commotions of ungovernable
men, and tyrannies ; no element in Nature, but, at one
time or other, domineering, and threatening to swallow
and reduce all into principles, did not some Almighty
Power compose these disorders, reduce the proud and

THE TRUE RELIGION. 77

swelling waves, and say, Hitherto shall ye go, and no
farther.

Nor is this great God molested or distracted with
this multiplicity of things under His care, as some
Heathens fancied. 1 say not all; for Socrates con-
vinced Aristodemus' the contrary, by the soul's govern-
ing the body, without the least confusion ; whilst others
fancied as many several deities and powers as there
were employments; and accordingly assigned them
their particular provinces, measuring them by the
possibilities of men. Neither must we imagine the
Almighty docs anything in time, and by succession, (as
we finite creatures do) but He sees, thinks, acts, dis-
poses all things, semel et simul, even to the determining
the nature of every cause, the leaf of every tree, c-\'cry
hair of our heads, every sparrow that falls and lights
iipon the ground ; and knows all that does not actually
exist, even the ultimitics of what can or may be ; naj-,
future contingencies and events, which He does not
necessitate, to the end we may entirely depend on Him
alone. ^ But thus some wretched sophists and shallow
fops took umbrage that so many and diiferent notices
and things should be assigned to any one Grod, as
fancying him a man, no more capable than themselves

' Xenophon. Mem. 1. 1.

" If God did not comprehend and take in particulars, as well as
universals, how could He comprehend Himself, since all generals
subsist in particulars? And should these latter fail, (as they
would, did not God preserve them) the former must come to ruin
also.

/8 THE TEUE RELIGION.

of what we attribute to him : and as if He, who made
all, understood not what He made, even all the springs
of motion whatsoever, and possible resorts.

We see the sun at the same moment, without the
least fatigue or confusion, employed about innumerable
services, for all the creatures, animal or vegetable, and
aU things under heaven ; all distinctions of seasons, pro-
ductions of plants, maturity of fruits, concoction of
minerals; meteorizing of vapours, cherishing animals,
enlightening the world, and other numberless uses,
which we take no notice of. But, especially, how the
soul of man (as we have instanced) is able at the same
moment of time to contemplate the remoted heavens
and its various revolutions; directs the body and its
several affections, and comprehends such wonderful and
distant notions, arts and sciences, and tilings metaphy-
sical and abstracted, without the least trouble or dis-
traction. Now, if a creature soul is able to perform all
this, how much more able is the Great Soul of the
World (Creator of Souls) to govern, manage, and dis-
pose of all things, and who has, for infinite occasions,
infinite wisdom, power, faculties, and accomplish-
ments !

I know there be who have with bold blasphemy
imagined that, had they been of counsel with the Great
God, when He created the world, they could have con-
trived it better. There should, say they, have been no
wildernesses, nor barren rocks ; no noxious beasts, no
birds of prey, no dissensions among people, no death
nor misery in the world. Epicurus and his scholars of

THE TllUE RELIGION. 79

old,' and some daring persons of later times, make this
an argument of there being no God, such faults they
have discovered in the workmanship, as if all were
made by chance. But we have already shewed the
pride and vanity of these impudent and ungrateful
wretches, and with what incomparable wisdom God has
made all things as they are. So as with the pious
stoic :^ " He who would," says he, " undertake to mend
what is done, and contrive things to more advantage,
should in the first place try to mend God, and teach
him better; but if he find that too hard for him, mend
himself, and no more entertain so wicked an imagina-
tion."

It is admirable what Xenophon' makes Socrates to
enumerate of the incomparable advantages God has en-
riched man with above all the creatures, discoursing of
His care and providence to Enthydemus, and how
much we are obliged to be thankful : that though the
rest of animals are many of them stronger than man,
yet they are his vassals. In a word, the whole dialogue
seems a paraphrase on the eighth Psalm, and is so full
of what Cicero has written, (and we have already cited)
that it was certainly transcribed verbatim out of our
author from the Greek.

There are those who complain that they had not eyes
in their neck behind, as well as in their faces before,
and pretend to refine on the works of nature, and that
God has not given them the legs and strength of horses,

' Lucretius. ^ Epictetus.

' Xen. Mem., lib. 4.

80 THE TRUE RELIGION.

and that man comes into the world so feeble and de-
fenceless —

" ut ssevis projectus ab undis

Navita nudus humi jacet," &c.'

" The little infant child cast out,
Like a poor mariner, tossed by fierce seas.
Naked on earth the helpless baby lies.
When Nature makes it in the light at first
By throes out of its mother's womb to burst ;
And that with mournful cries the place it fills:
Justly, whose life must pass so many ills.
While divers cattle breed, herds, and wild beasts,
Nor need they rattles, or to be caressed
With broken words of the fond nurse, nor yet
Need they to change their clothes for seasons fit.
Nor arms, nor bulwarks raise, nor a high wall
To guard them, since the earth all things for all
Provides "

Or, as is most elegantly described by Pliny ;2 and by
Plato in his fiction of Protagoras, where he shows
how mankind, coming naked into the world, was com-
mitted to the care of Epimetheus, to supply what he
wanted; but that he had been so profuse in furnishing
the rest of animals with all things necessary, and so
improvident as to man, that there was nothing left for
the poor creature, till Prometheus stole fire from Vul-
can, and from Mercury the use of it, who was sent by
Jupiter to assist his other wants, and to teach him arts
and sciences. And we must indeed confess that there
is nothing in nature more helpless and utterly destitute ;
' Lucret., lib. v., 223. ^ Nat. Hist., lib. ii. Prajf.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 81

but tills is SO far from detracting from the Providence
of God, that it infinitely exalts it. The feeble infant,
truly, can neither stand nor go, feed, clothe, or shift for
itself, whilst we see other living creatures come vested,
armed, able immediately to find their pasture, defend
and maintain themselves. But see : no sooner does
this child grow up, but he covers himself with their
spoils, feeds on their flesh, and uses them for his vassals.
They plough, sow, carry burdens for him, and do
whatever he pleases. For though he have not the
strength of the elephant, the swiftness of the roe, the
sagacity of the dog, nor the bulk and procerity of an
oak, yet he has prudence, and reason, and faculties,
which not only supply what he may seem to want of
the perfection of other creatures, but transcends them.'
He conquers and subdues the strongest and fiercest of
them ; brings the sturdiest cattle under yoke ; manages
the most ungovernable horse ; catches the swiftest fowl ;
climbs to the highest nest ; takes the craftiest fox and
indomitable panther in nets, gins, traps, and a thousand
surprising inventions. " For every kind of beasts, and
of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is
tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind, "^ so as to serve
both his necessity and recreation. Moreover, he digs
into the entrails of the earth ; dives into the bottom of
the seas ; shuts out and admits the heat of the scorch-
ing sun at his pleasure ; prepares his food ; knows the

' Simonides apud Plutarch, Utrum Animal. Theodor. Serm.
5. De Prov. Oppian, lib. v, Halieut,
' James, iii., 7,
VOL. I. G

82 THE TRUE RELIGION.

use of fire for a world of purposes ; and clothes and
warms himself, which no other creature does beside
him. He builds lofty pyramids, cities, and enormous
fabrics, out of the bowels of rocks ; and makes whole
forests of sturdy oaks and stately pines descend from
the lofty mountains to the lowest floods and far-dis-
tant ocean, where go the ships, and where is that
Leviathan whom God has made to take his pastime
therein.' But even him, with his harping spear, he
boldly encounters, subdues, and brings captive to the
shore. He cuts huge channels of water, joins seas to
seas, raises forts impregnable. He levels mountains,
and sometimes removes them with his artificial light-
ning. And yet nothing of all this, almost, by virtue of
his natural strength, (in which he is so far inferior to
brutes) but by that Reason which the providence of
God has supplied him with, stronger than all created
powers on earth.

How imreasonably, then, does ungrateful man cavil,
as if he alone were neglected ; whereas, should God
have gratified his foolish wish, he would be the first to
deplore his unhappy condition, and wish himself like
other men. Plato, says Lactantius,^ with better reason
might have thanked the gods he was a man, and con-
demned those ingrates, who are not satisfied in being the
noblest of creatures, unless they also had been beasts.
How vain, yet impossible, that were, Firmianus hand-
somely demonstrates, when the philosopher gave thanks

' Psalm, 104, 26. Job, xli.

' Opif. Dei, c. 3, et de fals4 Eel., 1. i., c. 8.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 83

to the Deity that he was a man, and not a beast ; bom
at Athens, not in an obscure village : than which, says
he, nothing is more impertinent. As if, had Plato been
indeed a brute, he had been Plato. How much wiser,
then, had he proceeded to have reserved his thanks,
that he was an ingenious, docile, and learned person,
since so many duU blockheads might have been bom at
Athens, as well as himself, &c.

But for the rest of those malecontents. "Were I a
nightingale, says honest Epictetus,^ I would do as a
nightingale does ; but since I am a rational creature, I
will laud and celebrate my Maker. Let ns learn of
tliis Christian Heathen. I tell you, Seneca^ is in ad-
miration at these peevish wretches, these iniqui diti-
norum munerum wstimatores,^ as he calls them. The
whole passage were worth transcribing, but more the
pondering of it by our wits and droUs, who, as the phi-
losopher speaks, are (as now in ours so in his time)
arrived to that pitch of impudence, that they hated
even Nature herself, because she had not made them
Gods, whereas they ought to have been thankful they
were men, and dignified with the second place of all
His glorious and royal palace, enriched with so ample a
dominion and so many prerogatives ; that all the crea-
tures are subject to him ; that he is endowed with such
virtue and powers above them ; that his soul lustrates
and pervades through all things ; his thoughts prevent-
ing the swiftest motion of the heavens ; in a word, that

' Enchir. ' De Benef., 1. 2. c. 20.

^ " Unfair valuers of God's gifts."

g2

84 THE TEUE EELIGION.

mankind enjoys such an accumulation of earthly bless-
ings, that, when he shall have well surveyed them all —
because he can find nothing so accomphshed as himself,
for which he would exchange his condition, and choose
what he most desires — he must be driven to confess
himself the very darling of Nature, and that the Gods
have placed him next themselves: which is the su-
premest honour we are capable of, Magna accepimus,
majora non cepimus, so brim-fuU, that we can contain
no more : thus Seneca.

To this let us add the wonderful and wise contrivance
of the aspectable world again, and its furniture ; that
in all this tract of time there should not appear the
least crack, defect, incoherence, or decay of any of the
most minute parts or accessory ; so as to require need
of mending, repair, or of being better excogitated for
the use and purposes they first were made, but that all
continue as they did from the beginning, (as the Atheist
in St. Peter tells us themselves acknowledge) is of stu-
pendous consideration, and asserts the wisdom, power,
and providence of the Creator.'

WUl not the Heathen rise in judgment against our
modern Atheist ? For, indeed, not only the celestial
bodies and their regular courses, and more illustrious
instances of the Divine Providence in the mundane sys-
tem, but every tree, and plant, and flower, and fly
declare His goodness, care, and vigilance, and that in
wisdom He has made them all ; that both Heaven and
earth are fuE, top-full of His riches, I say ; all that is
' n. Pet., iii., 4.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 85

on the earth ; all that is in the earth, minerals and
stones ; all that is above the earth, the glorious orbs,
the vicissitudes of seasons, propagation of species, and
exuberance, in their several elements, for their clothing,
food, delight, medicine. The faculties, instincts, poHty,
combinations accommodating all things to the use of
man, above the rest. Not that the universe was only
made for us ; the whole not for any part, but that part
for the whole, and the whole for the Maker, though the
things of this inferior world may be said to be princi-
pally made for man, while other superior creatures may
not be altogether unconcerned even in this visible crea-
tion. Nothing, then, of all this could subsist without a
wise supreme cause or moderator, or possibly be the
result of chance or blind necessity operating on sense-
less matter. Nor is human nature a mere machine, nor
our mind and soul the mechanical creature of motion ;
nor does any the least thing hang merely by the links
of natural causes, but is the decree of a most admirable
disposer ; the structure and formation of man alone
being as great a proof of the Deity and His providence
as that of the whole world itself. Lastly, the preserva-
tion of empires and governments, as well under mo-
narchs as republics ; that so many different men of so
many different minds, interests, and affections should
submit to one, as a few for so many ages have done ; as
well as the translation of kingdoms and governments
by such wonderful methods and means, for the punition
of tyrants, and the vices of men, of which history
abounds with examples. And what unexpected events

86 THE TEUE EELIGION.

have followed : as in Alexander's conquests, Augustus's
peaceful time, the success of the Turks against the dis-
agreeing Christians, the present lowness of Spain from
their inhumanity in the late revolution.

Nor can the unequal distribution of prosperity and
adversity of virtuous and religious people at all preju-
dice God's providence to any one, who considers that
our condition is totally independent ; and that, when at
any time Almighty God is pleased to disappoint our
expectations, it is for reasons perfectly known by Him,
for some necessary and prudent end, most just and
equitable, though we at present comprehend it not. So
as when it is said, " the race is not to the swift, nor the
battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor
yet riches to men of understanding," ' &c. It is not
meant as if all fell out by adventure, but that God dis-
poses otherwise than we conjecture. For He only sees
the heart, and can teU what cross events and inconve-
niences would succeed our contrivances and imagina-
tions, should everything be as we desire, who know not
what is best for us. And thus, likewise, does God
show His absolute dominion over His creatures ; and
would men but contemplate the exceeding great reward
designed to holy and excellent persons for their short
sufferings here, and ordinary disappointments, they
would, instead of murmuring, doubting, and censuring,
give God thanks for everything that befalls them. The
most righteous man living being but an unprofitable
servant, happy they, who, enduring afflictions and
^ Eccles., ix'., 11.

THE TRUE EELIGIOX. 87

animadversions here, shall be accounted ■ worthy to
escape the judgment to come, when there shall be
rewards distributed, and crowns of immortal glory.
Lut, besides this, it sets the higher value on piety,
virtue, and obedience. It may also be generally ob-
served, that holy and good men have commonly the
greatest temporal blessings too ; and that if any thing
intervene to the contrary, it is evidently from their own
Avant of prudence and timely caution, or for their good :
not here to pass by the Divine vengeance upon noto-
riously wicked men, even in this life also, and how
uncomfortably they go out of it, in the midst of all their
seeming prosperity.

The sum, then, of all we have here produced, is to
prove what is most manifest, That there is a God. In-
deed, we cannot see God, whom none shall see, and
live. The most sagacious of our natural organs would
be oppressed with the splendour of that vision, till they
come to be refined, changed, and spiritualized ; and then
shall we see and contemplate Him as He is, in the face
of Jesus Christ, who is the only image of His counte-
nance, and in whom all the perfections of the Godhead
are consjncuous, to the filling the largest of our capaci-
ties. But, considered as they are here, so far are we
unable to behold God, save in His works and Provi-
dence, that we see not our own selves ; that is, our
souls, (for the soul is the man) which is yet so near, so
intimate, and perpetually about us. But, though we
can neither see God, nor our souls, we may and can
have a real idea of both, without a sensible vision ; and

88 THE TEUE RELIGION.

our reason can represent that which our imagination
falls of — our imagination represents Him material, our
reason immaterial ; our fancy corporeal, our reason spi-
ritual and incorporeal, wise, powerful, perfect, the
sovereign being of beings ; and it is a natural impres-
sion in our soul, which then exerts itself, and most
appears when we reareon best. But, indeed, all our cer-
tainty of natural things begins at our senses, by the
sense or impression of the things themselves, or their
operations. And yet, though I see not nor touch many
things with my organs, because imperceptible, that all
I do proceeds from some cause, my understanding cer-
tainly concludes.

It was the vain objection of Vaninus, that, were there
a God and Providence, He would hinder men from sin-
ning against Him. But power is either absolute, or
tempered with justice, clemency, and other virtues. By
His absolute power He is able to effect all things, but,
as just and merciful. He does not. For, though he
permits sin to exercise our obedience and make trial of
our virtue. He gives thereby occasion also of manifest-
ing His love and favour. Without this, we had never
come to know the infinite degrees and extent of it, since
it is reward and punishment that produce love, fear, and
obsequiousness: forasmuch as God is pleased to act
with mankind as with a rational creature, and by such
methods and objects as He is pleased to propose, and
not altogether by blind and casual impressions. Unless
we understood the unfathomable depths of His infinite
knowledge, wisdom, and other attributes, we can never

THE TRUE RELIGION. 89

safely pronounce concerning the reason of His actions,
who educes good out of evil, by expedients and ways
most just and reasonable.

From all, then, we have alleged In proof of a Deity,
it can hardly be that there ever was such a monster as
a thorough-paced, speculative Atheist in the world. A
small and superficial insight into nature might, perhaps,
as my Lord Verulam says, dispose some sort of men to
think there were no God ; but a thorough and deeper
research will make it impossible : so convincing is every
tiling in Nature. And when all is said, it is every
good and wise man's interest and advantage to believe
a Deity ; for, supposing (but by no means granting) that
there were none, this infidelity has so many sad conse-
quences attending it, and the other so infinite advan-
tages accompanying it, that a wise man would live as if
there were, though there were none, as certainly, by
all that we have shown, there is. And, when our
atheist has produced all he has to say against it, it is
still more diflficult and inconsistent to prove the nega-
tive. All Nature cries out ; all nations, ages, people,
sciences ; aU consequences, the chain and ligature of aU
subordinate things ; universal consent, both of learned
and unlearned, civil or barbarous ; the consequence of
all Providence; all reasoning, all the arts and sciences;
astronomy, by the motion of the celestial bodies ; juris-
prudence, by all that is just and equal ; history, by
innumerable events ; morality, by every virtue ; nature,
by all her operations; all the philosophers, by their
most accurate researches ; and Aristotle himself, by his

90 THE TRUE RELIGION.

acknowledgment of subordinate motion leading to tlie
First Mover ; Des Cartes, by his free choice of a supe-
rior intelligence, confining matter to a particular motion
and quantity, and that nothing but a Prime Cause cain
produce thought or any thinking principle in an organic
body : in sum, even the wild and extravagant motion
of Epicurus's atoms and diiferent determinations of them
in such perfect creatures, do all of them demonstrate the
being of a God and of His providence.

In a word, our senses, imaginations, consciences, pas-
sions, and even all our faults, the voice of every sin,
(fearing a future punislunent) aloud proclaim it. To
conclude, be the event what it wUl, he who beUeves a
God hazards nothing valuable, should he be mistaken
(as it is not possible he should) ; but he who does not,
or but doubts of it, is infinitely miserable ; there being
no medium or proportion between the trifling satisfac-
tion we deny ourselves so short a time, by living well
and orderly, and the eternal damnation of a vicious in-
fidel and obstinate Atheist. Nay, admitting the proba-
bilities equal, our passions and wicked inclinations indeed
would have no God; but the interest of our reason,
conscience, health, and other benefits of virtue and
sobriety, the contrary.

"Were there no God in the world, virtue were a chi-
mera, — common honesty, folly, — fidelity, simpleness and
ridiculous folly. Who would trust his nearest neigh-
bour or relation? All governments, safety, and pro-
priety, would disband and vanish. Truth, justice, hu-
mility, charity, temperance, sincerity, and friendship —

THE TRUE EELIGION. 91

in short, all that elevates our nature above other crea-
tures — would expire.

And now to conclude this long, but necessary chapter:
if all these arguments wiU not prevail, no miracle will,
nor ever can. For, (as that noble Chancellor' has ob-
served) though we read of many illustrious miracles;,
which it pleased God to work upon other occasions, we
never read that He vouchsafed to work so much as one,
to evince the truth of His own existence, power, wis-
dom, and beneficence, for the establishment of natural
reliffion, or to convince one obstinate Atheist. Since
even the hght of nature were sufficient, and the won-
ders that are daily the objects of our senses, the miracles
of every moment, though we are blinded by the com-
monness of them, and so do not sufficiently heed them.
Else we should confess that everything we see and
enjoy is a miracle, and such as can be no other than
the effects of a Divine and Almighty power. Indeed,
other extraordinary favours have sometimes been showed
to heathens and idolaters, who acknowledged a deity,
though they erred, of ignorance and not of obstinacy,
about his worship: but never to any professedly be-
lieving none; because it is plainly monstrous, pro-
digious, unnatural, impious, and ungrateful, beyond all
reproach or sufferance.

' Lord Bacon.

92 THE TRUE RELIGION.

CHAPTEE II.

WHAT GOD AND THE SUPREME BEING IS.

SECTION I. HIS ATTHIBUTES.

SECTION II. OP ANGELS AND MINISTERING SPIHITS.

SECTION III. OF THE INTELLECTUAL SOUL.

SECTION I. HIS ATTRIBUTES.

The felicity of man consisting in the contemplation
of the highest Cause, we have already, by undeniable
arguments, asserted the being of such a Cause. By
the light of nature, we are convinced of His existence —
by the light of grace, of His essence : Reason dictating
the first. Revelation the latter. And yet to determine
positively what God is, w'as thought so difficult, nay,
so impossible, that not only Simonides, (in his famous
reply to Hiero) but not any one of the philosophers
were able to solve the question, farther than to ac-
knowledge that He was a Being that gave to all things
their being. There were, indeed, of the Physici, (as the
lonians named them) who, degenerating into Atheism,
and making all the result of motion and matter, whoUy
left out the Divine Cause. MTiilst others, on the con-
trary, left out the natural and necessary cause, and
held that God was all things, and all things God ; not

THE TRUE RELIGION. 93

distinguishing the Creator from the creature ; and so
made inanimate bodies under several forms the sub-
stance of God Himself. That God, containing aU
things in himself, upon a time displayed and brought
them forth, as being what is said of Isis, lu koI iravra.
Indeed, this All-in-one and One-in-all doctrine (so ad-
mirably pursued by Hermes in the Asclepian dialogue)
may in some sort be true ; as when he calls him the
radix, or root of all ; but these did not penetrate the
thing, but as a cause, not the definition ; much less his
attributes, which they could never comprehend to fix
in one. The whole consessus of the Heathen deities
had their several powers ; but that any single deity had
them all they judged impossible. Those who come
nearest in their notions, made God the mundane soul ;
as for instance Seneca ; > and Pythagoras cited by Cle-
mens to the same effect.

This they had from Thales, Anaximenes, and the
rest, who made him all the elements, denoting his uni-
versal and immense extent and influence. But then
this must be taken with reference to His power and
omnipotence only. For otherwise, should God be the
soul of the universe, (as we understand the soul) how
should the human soul be happy and unhappy at the
same moment? As when in one place, or member of
any animate creature, it is sensible of pain and torture,
whilst it is pleased and delighted in another, according
as the matter, or animal, happens to be affected with

' Quid est Deus ? Meus Universalis.

Nat, Quest, i. Prof.

94 THE TRUE RELIGION.

the universal soul which animates it ? This, therefore,
is to be taken for that diffusion of life and motion which
God does universally impart to His creature, nay, the
whole creation, and not as being any part of His divine
substance, which is altogether incommunicable. So as
what this great God formally is, though He dwell in
the light, it is a light not to be approached by us, by
reason of the thick darkness which environs it, (like
that described by Moses on INIount Sinai at the pro-
mulgation of the law) or rather the darkness of our un-
derstandings to comprehend it.

Wlierefore the wisest of philosophers endeavoured to
describe Him rather by what He appears in the crea-
ture, and the wondrous works which declare His power
and wisdom. Not that He is like to any of them for any
eminence or perfection in them ; but as they approach
Him in virtue and goodness, they may be so far said to
have a resemblance of Him in a moral sense ; whatever
is excellent being an emanation from Him. Nostri
melior pars animus est, in illo nulla pars extra animum,
totus ratio est. The soul is our best part ; God is all
soul, the noblest part, for He is All. And when we
are able to define what that part of us is which has no
parts, we shall be best capable to say what He is, who
is All. Till then, men may rack their wits and study
high and lofty notions, but never shall they come to
know positively what He is, but rather by what He is
not. He is yet aU we see, but aU we see is not God.
All things (says Trismegistus) that are and that are not
Those that are He has manifested from Himself; those

THE TRUE RELIGION. 95

that are not, He contains in Himself. They come to
know positively what He is, but rather by what He is
not. He is yet all" we see; but all we see is not God.'
How is it possible we should know what He is, (so as
to define Him) who know not ourselves, namely, that
which makes us what we are, our souls ? When we
come to know the God within us,^ (as Seneca says) we
may then come nearer to the mark ; but it is not visible
to us yet. No ; not though He be every moment in
us, near us, and about us.' Whence the notion of an
intellectual sphere, whose centre was every where, cir-
cumference no where. Thus the philosophers called
Him Friendship, Fate, Nature, the Sovereign Good ;
in a word, they described Him by His attributes ; nor
was there any of them left out, which some of their
wise men did not expressly mention : so as Minutius
teUs us, one might in his days have thought the new
Christians had been philosophers, or the old philoso-
phers Christians. Thus Plato calls him the Idea of the
most consummate perfection ; Aristotle,'' the Being of

' I find this prettily explained in that of Ocellus (in Stobseo).
" Life,'' say3 he, " contains the body of animals ; the cause of lifei
is the soul — concord contains houses, cities, estates ; the cause of
concord is law, and the fountain of law is God."

''■ " Deum in humano corpore hospitantem."

Sen. Ep. 81.

' Parmenides and Hesiod made Love the supreme Deity ; Love
being an active principle, and cause of motion ; and indeed it is
the first and greatest ; for God is Love and Beneficence ; whence
all this theogony and cosmogony springs.

* Lib. de Rel.

96 THE TEUE EELIGION.

Beings, whose "miserere" he is said to have implored
at his last agony.

Nor did the ancient Pagans intend any more by
their several names than the divers attributes of one
Deity, representing them all. Seldom do we hear
them imploring these deputy gods, when they were in
distress, but held up their hands to heaven, the seat of
Jupiter, not to the Capitol, or Pantheon, where all
their statues were enshrined; which TertuUian notes as
"concurrent testimony of Unity. ''^ And thus, whilst
without God in the world, did the Heathen grope after
Him, though He was not far from any one of them.
For what was Jupiter but the true Jehova ? So Ma-
crobius, from a certain oracle that the Supreme Deity
was to be called Jao.^ Lastly, touching the unity of
God, (besides what we have alleged) the very poets,
who took the greatest liberty to set off and adorn their
fictions with the introduction of so many deities, spake
but of one, when serious : nor did Plato mention more,
when in earnest —

Ely Zev? a-vv dot^la bvvaTos Bafia Kal iroXv-oK^os-

One God, wise, omnipotent, and happy ; for so Phocylides

^ So when Thales makes him Water, Anaximenes Air, Heracli-
tus and Hippocrates Fire, the first bom Light, &c., they meant
but the vast expanse of matter. And those who held He was a
body, and that qualities and forms were entities only distinct from
body, intended only, substance. Hence °H a\r]6ivri <ro(j>ia, oicrla,
KTj § akr)6i,vrj ovaia, (To<pia. Solid wisdom is substance, and Truth
has real existence. To the same purpose Heraclitus Ponticus,
Alexander Aphrodisseus, Theophrastus, Zeno, &c.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 97

sums up His attributes in one verse ; and it was the
creed of the Platonists universally. To these agree the
sybils ; and it has been the voice of their very oracles,
who sometimes are forced to speak the truth, as the
unclean spirits to our Blessed Saviour : " I know thee who
thou art, the Holy one of God.'"^ From aU which has
been said may be collected this definition (even from
the suffrages of Pagans only) that God is one per-
fect conscious intellect, mind, and being, existing from
aU eternity, and giving being to all things.

But to leave the Heathen a while to the light of
nature; remarkable is that which Justin Martyr re-
lates in his dialogue with Trypho, the Jew, that, being
extremely inquisitive of the nature and attributes of
God, after he had consulted all the philosophers, and
run through their sects, he professes they none of them
could give him any satisfaction, till he happened to
meet an ancient, venerable person, that was a Christian.
Let us, therefore, see what their thoughts and concep-
tions are, and how they define Him from Divine revela-
tion : we say Divine revelation, for that none can tell
what God is, but God Himself. From His mouth,
then. His holy oracles, we have the most conspicuous
manifestations of His perfections, and in Christ, the
most express image of His person. But the depth still
remains as to any adequate definition of those incom-
prehensible perfections. For when we shall have said
all we can, God is still the same uninvestigable nature ;
the most known, and yet the most unknown. Than
' St. Luke, ir., 34.

VOL. I. H

98 THE TRUE RELIGION.

His being and existence nothing is naore plain anil
evident ; than his essence and nature, nothing more ob-
scure and concealed. This yet we may safely affirm,
that He is a pure and total act, without matter or form.'
He is one uncreated mind, a perfect and incorporeal ex-
istence, a real substantial spirit, comprehending Him-
self—the infinite extent of his unlimited power — the
possibility of all things, and their intelligible postures,
together with an example or idea of the universe. In a
word. He is all beyond all we can conceive ; and there-
fore did the very Heathen define Him rather by ab-
stracting all imperfections, than undertake to declare
what positively He was. We therefore best conceive
Him by His glorious and Divine attributes ; which yet
diifer nothing from His essence, though, in respect to
us fraU creatures, incapable of comprehending all things
by a single act, they seem to be different notions. But
there is the Almighty God, great without quantity,
good without quality ; just and merciful without pas-
sion or partiality ; everywhere without motion ; in
heaven itself without place; comprehending all, com-
prehended by none. Thus far were the Gentiles ortho-
dox. But what they had from the light of nature, we

' God is Eternal, without cause, beginning, time, or succession.
Omnipresent, filling all things, yet without parts or

extension.
Omnipotent, able to educe and create out of nothing,

and reduce to nothing.
Omniscient of past, present, future to continuance, and

every thought before we think, and that without

imposing any fatal necessity on human action.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 99

Christians have by that of His word, wherein lie has
most plainly communicated Himself to be a spiritual,
immaterial substance, almighty, powerful, eternal, wise,
holy, just, merciful, supreme God.' This whilst the
Heathens could not reach, nor how it was possible for
so much perfection to be in one; they assigned the
several attributes to distinct and several powers, among
which they held one supreme. But let us now consider
His attributes more particularly.

SECTION I.
PART I. god's attributes.

1. We may safely pronounce God to be a most pure
and simple being. For, had his existence any mixture
or composition, then must the ingredients (at least some
of them) be the First Cause, or jirinciple. Now, that
which was first has no parts or dimensions, and is
therefore pure and incorporeal, and, if so, uncircum-
scribable, and immense; having nothing to do with
place or iibi in the manner of bodies : and so of neces-
sity infinite, and of infinite there can be but one, two or
more infinites being contradictory.

2. Next is evident that God is a spirit immaterial.
For indeed there may be substance without matter.
We commonly fancy substance to be only something of
bulk and body ; whereas a spiritual substance is a puis-

' Not obscurely revealed in His tremendous name, Jehovah,
which the Jews say none have ever known how to pronounce, and
therefore use Adonai as Lord, instead of it. Jah signifying ens,
or existence, the / Am declared to Moses out of the fiery bush.

h2

100 THE TRUE RELIGION.

sant, intellectual being, without dimension, figure, parts,
or passions, and therefore no more the object of sight
than the clearest air, nor of our touch, than is light ;
and consequently not susceptible of the laws of matter,
to be rarified and condensed ; nor immoveable tiU some-
thins moves it, as matter is. We must therefore con-
ceive God as a substance, yet as incorporeal, and not
an immense gross matter. For, were He such, there
could be no other matter or substance in the imiverse.
He is, therefore, not any corporeal substance.

Moreover, this incommixture and simple purity of
parts and principles, being yet of nearest resemblance
to light ; He is often called the Father of Light, but of
such a light as is unapproachable either to our eyes, or
clearest understanding. However, the Father of Spirits,
who communicates so much to the material world, may
be thought to hold a nearer and more immediate com-
munion with our souls than with our bodies ; as seeming
to be that to the mind in us, which the sun is to the eye,
but still by a very faint resemblance. This, therefore,
is only to show, that, whatever is most pure and trans-
cendently excellent in the creature, is so superlatively
in the Creator. Nor can we imagine the author of all
Beauty, Glory, Wisdom, Knowledge, Power, and all
Perfection, to be less Glorious, Pure, Prudent, and con-
summately Perfect, than the things which He has made.

3. The next incommunicable attribute is his Infinity ;
and this necessarily implies his Eternity. Something
of necessity must be eternal, else nothing (as we proved)
could be anything. All things showing their being

THE TRUE EELIGIOK. 101

from one, that being must be from ever ; seeing that
nothing can make impression on, destroy, or alter Him,
who gave all being and power to aU things.' He is an
.everlasting now, or instant. Hence that of God to
INIoses, / am. He was before all things, who is all
things to and in Himself.^

In the mean while, there is nothing so distractingly
incomprehensible of the Sovereign Being, and about
which our deepest research is more at a loss, than the
notion of Infinite and eternal, be it person, time, or
space ; not because it may be of itself inexplicable, but
because we have no instruments, tools, or faculties,
capable of comprehending it, or to work on a thing so
much abstracted from matter, and things which fly
our senses, common or intellectual, viz., that anything
should never have had being, or shall have ending.
God yet cannot exist without this perfection, it being
absolutely essential to His being. When, therefore, we
hear of diiference of time to God, it is spoken to sup-
port the weakness of our capacities, which cannot con-
ceive anything without it. And to this attribute of
eternity did all the Heathens give suffrage,' it being so
plain that nothing can pass into actual being without a
foregoing cause; and if no cause could give being,
nothing can talce it away, and so it must be eternaL

' This is called by Boethius an entire fruition of interminable
life and felicity, at once and together, which distinguishes it from
the eternity of souls, whose eternal being has commencement.

' Tertullian. Theophylact.

^ Aristot. De Coelo, 1. 2.

102 THE TEUE EELIGION.

Thus we have abundantly showed that God is either
essentially and of Himself, or from some other prin-
ciple : that if He have beginning, it must be from some
fountain or source which always ran, and never stopped. .
If He had no beginning, He must be self-existent ; and
there is no medium ; we must for the rest acknowledge
a subordination of causes and effects even to infinity,
which were absurd ; or else be driven to confess a ne-
cessity of existence, whence all His other attributes
flow ; whence all our qualities in like manner proceed,
from the virtue of second causes, communicating some-
thing to us which before we had not. And thence it is
necessary that the measure of these qualities should be
governed by the measures and power of the agent.

Now, when a Being has all that it has from itself, his
attributes and perfections become infinite a,nd uncon-
fined. And this Infinite, for being but one, creates
that unity in the Deity so little heretofore understood
by even the wisest Heathen.' That, indeed, which in-
duced the less reasonable and discerning to fancy more
than one, was, as we have showed, their conceit that so
many perfections were not competent to no more ; be-
sides the vain ambition of others who affected Deity
themselves, as flatterers made them. Hence Alexander
had been almost persuaded by sycophants, till, being
wounded, he saw his blood, and grew faint. The rest,
forsooth, would be heroes, at least sprung from gods ;
and it was the desire of most great cities and countries

' See Tertullian adver. Mar.,1. i , c. 10. Hermes Trismegistus,
Asclep. Dialog. Sen. de Benef., 1. iv., c. 7.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 103

to have each their tutelary deities. Also from the
stupid and carnal idea of brutish people, who fancied
their deities to marry and propagate like men; from
which impertinent fiction sprung the multiplicity of
idols. Not considering that were there a plurality of
Supreme Powers, they could not be gods. Unity, then,
of perfection needs noting, as possessing all things in
itself; and if so, not multiplicable ; many Infinites
beinsr inconsistent. We never read of two monarchs
ruling together, whatever we call them by solecism;
and even colleagues have seldom lasted without jealousy
or open hostility. Caesar and Pompey could not agree,
and majesties, as well as rivals in love, never sit on the
same throne. Aut Cwsar, aut nihil.

We have in the former chapter made appear how this
Oneness is vindicated by everything in nature, as well
as polity. One father of a family — one king in a king-
dom—one shepherd of the flock — one ox in the herd —
one mistress bee. Never was any house or kingdom
divided that could stand: Almighty is God's proper
name : He being but One, has no name but one ; and in
that alone is comprehended King, Lord, Father, and
blaster. He is our shepherd, and we are the sheep of
His pasture, as David, divinely. In sum, whatsoever
implies Oneness, cogitating all the parts of matter. Tliis
was that one mind, or spirit, interiorly operating ; and,
therefore, as Plato so eminently, as we observed, calls
Him God in the singular, to attest truth. Indeed, the
Komans had a prejudice to this unity, especially that of
the Christian persuasion, pretending they subdued the

lOJi THE TRUE RELIGION.

world without His assistance ; several portents happen-
ing amongst them, as they fancied, confirming their
opinions, as Is summarily set down by Minutius Felix,
recited to his Cfficilius, where he describes the Pagan
systems, not much imlike that of Epicurus, of old, and
our later Atheists, who ascribe all to chance or trans-
elementation-. And as to other human vicissitudes, to
uncertain fortunes, through the lazy humour of con-
cluding, without sober reasoning. But to this they
attributed their successes, namely, to the tropical and
regionary deities, and their entertaining so numerous a
train of gods and goddesses; in this, perhaps, more
reverend, that whereas other nations were wont to blas-
pheme the vanquished gods as cowards, and weekly,
they honoured and received them so kindly, as to chain
some in their temples and oratories, lest they should get
away and forsake them.

But to speak no more of this so oft repeated. Two
causes are impossible ; for that all things should depend
on one, while there are more Independent beings, are
contradictions insufferable ; and if more gods, then were
not all perfections In one God ; and so one should have
power, the other none ; and they might have contrary
determinations and wills concerning the same thing;
which soon would dissolve all government ; whereas
God is a God of order,' the God Sabaoth, and is,
therefore, so One, as no unity in the world is besides ;
and yet, not that one, as a species, comprehending

' Isai., xIy., 5, 6, 30 — xxi., 23, 24 — also xliv., 8; Deut., xiv.,
35, and xxxii., 39; Ps., xviii., 13; John, xvii., 3.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 105

many individuala, nor aa a body divisible, and that He
has parts or extremes ; but simply one, as nothing is
80 one. If God were not one, he were nothing; if
more than one, men would be to seek which to worship,
and fluctuate upon various and uncertain objects. In a
word, all irrational agents are His creatures, and the
rational His children ; for, as a Father, he begets us ;
as a Father, maintains and nourishes us : so far as the
mere act of creation may be styled generation, God
is our Father; for in Him we live, and move, and
have our being.' We are indeed the sons of men,
when we do amiss ; when well, the sons of God : agree-
ably to that of the philosopher, That God was the
common parent of all, but more particularly of good
men.^

4. Omnipotence, which in nothing more appears than
in His educing something out of nothing ; of which we
have spoken at large. For in regard of His eternal
right and power of making, what, when, and how He
pleases ; of possessing whatever He makes ; of using and
disposing as seems good to Him, His power is absolute.
So infinitely do some extol His omnipotence, that Lac-
tantius unwarily seems to intimate, as if the Deity pro-
duced even Himself; namely, such as He willed Him-
self to be ; and so be the cause of Himself.' But this
is extravagant : nor did God result from chance or ne-
cessity of nature, as if His being were imposed on Him ;

> Tertull. adv. Marc, 1. i., c. 5.
'' Plutarch, in vit. Alex. ' Plotinus.

106 THE TRUE EELIGION.

but He is as much that which He woiild be, as if He
had made himself.

He is able to do all things not repugnant to His
nature ; as to be sick, or die, or be false. ' He can do
all He will, though He do not all He can ; that is, all
that can be done, and implies no dishonour or contra-
diction to His veracity and excellency, as St. Augustine*
says. In respect of all other objects and actions. His
power knows no bounds ; nor were all His other attri-
butes anything, without it, but speculative notions.
And whatever dominion others may have of mankind,
one peculiar title has God, which none but He can have
over us, that He gives us our being, and is of right our
Sovereign Lord and Potentate. God's omnipotence,
then, consists in an ability to do whatever can be done,
and the object of this power is whatever is possible.
But what is impossible is no adequate object of power,
but destroys it, rather, and dishonours it ; as that He
should undo the past, make another God like himself;
destroy ^ or deprive his own substance, or corporify and
change it. God is with all reverence said not to do
that which belongs to no power. The same is affirm-
able of His infinity and of His telling the last number,
because there is no end or determination of either:
since, were there any end, it could not be infinite ; and
the greatest possible notation of number may be in-

' S. Aug. Enchir.

'^ Velint invenire quod Omnipotens non potest, liabent prorsus,
ego dicam, mentiri non potest. S. Aug. De Civ. Dei, lib. xxii,, c. 25.
^ See Maimon. De Natura Imposs.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 107

finitely doubled. In a word, whatever God is said not
to effect, or to be impossible, proves not any impotence,
but rather shows that all His other attributes and per-
fections are as essential to Him as His Power ; and as
His power suffers no resistance, so neither do the rest
of His perfections admit any repugnance. But, in all
events, it is safer to say what He never will do, rather
than positively what he cannot do.' " Is anything too
hard for the Lord ?"

Nor is the Almighty more powerful than just and
righteous ; so as He never does or can abuse His power.
Justice and rectitude is His nature. " Shall not the
Judge of all the earth do right ?" — Shall He not take
cognizance of all injustices, vindicating the injured, as
the very Fountain of Justice ? It was for this the
ancients had recourse to the gods in their solemn oaths
and appeals, as to whom all must render account of
their actions, for the reward or reproof of Him, who
only distributes them. AVTierefore, it were the greatest
defect in so Divine a nature, not to recompense good-
ness and virtue, and punish wickedness and vice, be-
cause it were unjust ; and as well might we deny all
Providence, and even God Himself, as to deny Him
justice. For if He be an intellectual being, he com-
prehends all possible actions, be they good or bad ; the
one being agreeable to Him, and nearest to His excel-
lent nature : the other, contradictory and repugnant.

' Genesis, xviii., 14; S. Aug. De Civ. Dei, lib. v., c. 10; Hie-
rome ad Marc, 5 ; Seneca Prsef. Nat. Quest. Gregory Nazianz.

108 THE TRUE RELIGION.

His justice and dealing must needs be accordingly, and
thus are all God's attributes chained and hnked to each
other, never to be sundered. His wisdom shows he
cannot be deceived; His omnipotence proves He has
no need to deceive ; His goodness declares His unwil-
lingness to deceive; and aU of them assert his exact
and impartial justice.

5. Truth : — God has sworn by Himself, because there
is none greater ; not that it is possible He should be
false, but to support our diffidence, and want of faith.
For otherwise it is as impossible for God to lie without
an oath, as with one.' The virtue of His veracity is
not fortified by an asseveration of God, as to its being
true ; but from the nature of God, who cannot equivo-
cate, or dissemble. It is inconsistent with His purity ;
a contradiction to His integrity; repugnant to His
justice, and averse to his goodness, to deliver anything
contrary to His certain knowledge ; and therefore He
cannot wrong any one. His testimony is truth itself;
and accordingly, exacts our assent. Truth is the found-
ation of God's authority, the source of His omnipotence,
and the only support and stay of all our confidence.

6. Goodness, Beneficence, and Love: God does not
govern arbitrarily, upon the sole account of His power
and will, but as His will is the wiU and law of justice
and highest reason. Nor does He punish any, but for
their good, and to make them better. To conceive
rightly of God, is to figure in our minds an existence of
aU possible goodness, justice, truth, and other divine

' Hebrews, vi., 18.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 109

virtues, and that all things are in Him as they should
be ; and the imiversal system so framed and governed,
as nothing could be more perfect, or possibly improved,
however things may appear to our shallow comprehen-
sion. For as He is the source of all good, so all that
He created was good, yea, very good. God, as a free
agent, undetermined by anything but His own good
pleasure, spreads His goodness and beneficence over all
His creatures ; and this it is that entitles Him to the
universal empire, even above omnipotence itself. His
mercy, as David says, is over all His works. Nor, in-
deed, is there any majesty without goodness. Take
away the notion of goodness from God, and none would
serve Him, none seek Him sincerely. It is His good-
ness leads sinners to repentance, and repentance from
fear alone is unacceptable. Yet so gracious is God,
that He does good even to the evil, as well as to the
good ; not that they may continue evil, but because He
is superabundant in mercy and goodness. All our evil
is from ourselves — all that is good in us, from Him.

The whole universe, and the provisions it affords
us, and all His creatures, declare His beneficence ;' and
80 conspicuous is this attribute, as to be celebrated
above aU the rest. Indeed, creation is an attribute be-
longing to God alone ; and so is all nature, all sub-
stance, good. For God did not create evil, nor its
effects, Death and Sin, which are neither nature nor
substance, but enemies and foes to both. Evil has no
existence, but as an accident fallen unhappily into sub-
' See Seneca De Benef.

110 THE TRUE RELIGION.

stance, and has no other being of itself.' Nor is it an
effect, but defect.^ When things, therefore, deflect from
goodness, it is chaos, and darkness, and nothing. Now,
if there be any other evils in the world, they are so
only to our ignorance. For even the deleterious and
noxious juices, &c., of plants, repugnant elements, and
contrary seasons, are all of them good and profitable to
us in time and place, and spring from the fountain of all
goodness. If we know not the use of them, it is our
ignorance : and if they do us hurt, our own fault. For
every thing has two handles, a right one, and a left, a
tractable and untractable ; and a wise man takes hold
of the first.^ God has not hid and concealed these things
out of envy and want of goodness, but to exercise our
reason, incite our industry, and excite our devotion.
They, therefore, infinitely dishonour Him, who deny
God philanthropy,* whereas God is all goodness and
love ; the most illustrious proof of which (till we come
to speak of the work of His redemption) is His

7. Providence ; by which He operates insensibly
and imperceptibly ; which shows the spirituality of His
being, penetrating all things. However events seem
to us, we should never cease to admire and praise God,*

' Evil is an omission of good, and has nothing sohd and real,
but as it may be of kindred to that, indeed, of which God made
the world, namely, nothing, as tending to nothing.

^ Plato In Timseo. Plotinus, &c.

' IlaK npayfia Sio i'xct- Xa/3ar." — Epictet. ' Hobbs.

Udvra oav^a^etv, irdvTa Inaivclv, irdvTa dve^eraaTws aTTodeyfo-
Bat, TO T^s Trpovoias efrya, Kav (f>alve<Tdai ttoXXoii adiKa, 6ia to ayvao-TOv
ehm, k.tX — Damas. De C. P., ii., 29.

THE TRUE RELIGION. Ill

being sure there Is both a just and reasonable cause,
though to US for the present undiscernible. In the
mean time, He ceases not to take care of every acci-
dent, that every thing proceed without the least inter-
ruption, in order to the whole. This care over His
works, so extensive as not a sparrow lights on the
ground, not a hair of our head falls without His ob-
servance and permission; even things without reason
participating, as well as mankind, in the method of the
Almighty's Providence, proceeding in order to the good
and preservation of the whole. Yea, and the most
contrary things He makes to be useful ; so as he who
denies Providence, denies and affronts God.

It is plainly stupendous, that any person to whom
God has given a rational soul, and faculties to consider
and distinguish, should at any time cast his eyes upon
even the least work of Nature, without at the same
time lifting them up in admiration at the wise order,
economy, and disposition of its several objects. In
short, and to sum up all, (because we have already
largely discussed this matter in the former chapter)
God did by His divine and eternal counsel purpose to
create a world, which He has formed by the most per-
fect idea He had designed, and to support and pre-
serve and keep up the compages by a powerful influx
and perpetual emanation ; governing all by such laws
and ordinances, methods and motives, as they observe
and subsist by ; the several courses and periods of the
celestial bodies; the influences, actions, and vicissi-
tudes of generation and corruption in terrestrial bodies ;

112 THE TRUE RELIGION.

various affections and alterations of them ; sensible per-
fections of some creatures ; Instincts of other animals ;
rational and free agents, from the smallest Insect to
mankind; and all these to be by standing ordinances
and Invariable decrees and rules; God foreseeing all
possible events, that there needed no repairs or further
supplement of any of His acts, or, as is necessary to
htmaan laws and establishments, by reason of their im-
perfection. For thus, by His particular Providence,
every minute thing has been considered, — by his general
care, the whole ; especially by Divine laws and insti-
tutes extends He His providence over men and angels,
in relation to their eternal condition ; as shall be shown,
when we come to speak of the dictates of those oracles
which declare the work of man's redemption. In the
mean time, the wretched meanness and unworthiness of
man renders his intercourse with God the more admi-
rable, but not incredible. The sun illummates the
lower world, the humble valleys, obscure recesses, with-
out any diminution of his glory or stopping of his
career. So God acts on the least dust He has made,
the most despicable worm that crawls, without trouble,
as the soul in the body ; or, like the centre of a circle,
that receives all the hues drawn from it, thouch ex-
tended to every part, without the least confusion ; ever
by one single motion and energy governing all other
motions, without the least toil or labour. And this He
does every moment, without any diminution to His
majesty, from the inconsiderableness of the subject, as
to our appearance ; on the contrary, the exility of the

THE TllUE RELIGION. 113

creature and workmanship heightens the skill and ex-
cellency of the artist.

And nothing more clearly shows the immense power
of the Almighty, than to consider how a lump of clay
and dust should contain a mind that knows itself and
so many other things. Nothing more celebrates Hi.s
wisdom, than to see how He foresees all actions ere
tiiey are done, and brings to pass good out of evil.
Nothing so much His justice, as His universally con-
demning the crime, even before it be perpetrated;
knowing the intentions of our hearts, and the motions
of all men's thoughts : so as no distance of place, or
darkness, can hide from His all-seeing eye, who observes
all, suffers all, that He may reward and punish all ac-
cordingly, and do all this to the best end. We cannot,
tlierefore, think of God, but as of a being most perfect
and honourable. Such a being can have no obliquits',
no defect — can do nothing unworthy of His nature.
Xor has He any need, as men have, for political con-
ecrns, to proceed by indirect courses to accomplish any
of His glorious works or purposes, being Himself Al-
mighty in power, wisdom, and righteousness.

8. Omnipresence : for how should God else provide for
the necessities of such a household of things, places,
and persons, so far and remote ? In which nothing
more resembles Him than light or air, which insinuates
itself, and pervades the most distant and obscure re-
cesses. Xothing in nature can subsist one momerit
without His actual presence. For thus, in all places
and at all times, He hears our prayers, takes notice of

VOL. I. 1

114 THE TEUE RELIGION.

our actions, yea, knows our most secret thoughts, be-
fore they discover themselves. He sees all that He has
made in their causes, whilst we frail creatures distin-
guish by parcels. In a word. He looks on aU the world
but as one house. From this omnipresence of God
results His

9. Knowledge. He who has power infinite has know-
ledge so likewise. How else should He comprehend
the use and exercise of His infinite power, wisdom,
providence, and other attributes? Universal, there-
fore, is His knowledge, from the highest heaven to the
lowest centre, from the greatest magnitude to the
minutest grain of sand. And so likewise (as we have
said) of goodness and beneficence, justice, and all other
virtues, which in the best of men are but shadows and
little drops ; for the infiniteness of His power and un-
derstanding would, without these, bring confusion in-
stead of order, and destruction instead of conservation. '
Without knowledge. He could not be wise ; but that
He is

10. Wisdom itself, all His actions and works declare.
For by wisdom He made the world, and has maintained
it ever since. Indeed there is, to say truth, no wisdom
but God's. All the wisdom and knowledge in the world
is but stark folly, in comparison with His. And what
we know, we know but in part ; and that little scant-
ling, whereby we excel other creatures, is but a ray

' Upon this account, Thales, Pythagoras, Plato, Epictetus, and
the rest, have concluded Him to be a sweet and noble mind-
Zenophantes and Clearchus, the highest reason.

THE TEUE RELIGION. 115

from Him, a small gleam from this Fountain of Light.
]\lan understands by reasoning, and lores by passion,
and when aU is done, with never so much labour and
industry, it is full of irregularity, doubts, and obnoxious
to mistakes. But God is infallible, reasonable, compre-
hensive, pure ; in Him is all light, and no darkness at
all. To fancy a God without wisdom and knowledge is
to figure him a stock, not a God. Whatever is the
first cause knows all the effects of that cause, and so
successively all other causes eternally: namely, the
ideas of all existences, events, and accidents : times past,
present, and future, as being all of them in the Divine
mind, that infinite abyss of understanding ; in the full
contemplation whereof is the beatific vision of God
Himself.' All things, which we see and know, have
their existence for some end. None whatever ha-ce
such a being for the same end. Of that there must be
thought a cause ; and a final cause is no otherwise the
cause of anything, than as it moves the efficient cause
to work. Whence we cannot but coUect the prime
efficient cause of all things to be endued with the most
consummate wisdom, which has a full comprehension of
the ends and events of all designs, productions, and dis-
posal of aU things to those ends. So as, whatever has
its operation to some end, must be directed to it by
some means; which though man can make choice of,
proportionable for the obtaining of it, yet other natural
agents, proceeding from mere instinct, cannot do so.
The water never deliberates whether it shall wet, nor
' S. Aug. dg Civ. Dei, 1. 12, c. 18.

116 THE TRUE RELIGION.

the fire whether it shall burn and consume ; nor does a
root consult whether it shall spring or wither ; nor use
we ourselves any deliberation in natural actions, with-
out which we yet cannot subsist a single moment. The
motion of the heart, the circulation of the blood, distri-
bution of nourishment, perform their several functions
after we have eaten and drunk, to these ends, not as
we, but as God has ordained them; yet are they all
directed to their proper ends, and that with the greatest
reason, and, therefore, greater wisdom, than ever flowed
from any thing save God, and His power, wisdom, and
knowledge, who is the Director to those ends, and for
which He gave them beings.'

] 1. Immutable. Now, so perfect and complicate are
all these God's attributes, that there needs no addition ;
and therefore He is Immutable, without change, or so
much as shadow of change, either in His nature, works,
or resolutions. There are some bold men who ques-
tion, nay, deny God's prescience and foreknowledge of
human actions, as inconsistent with His liberty. For,
say they, if man's actions be free, then are they unfore-
known, as having no necessary cause; whereas, it is
certain that prescience does not destroy men's wills, or
impose necessity on them ; nor are their actions there-
fore future, because foreknown, but quite the contrary.
God, in a sense of perfection, is of all the freest agent ;
nor is contingent liberty denied to Him ; but it is rather
one of the privileges of God, to be devoid of free choice

' Ecclus., iv., 11, 12, 17, 18, 19; Wisd., vii., 22, 23, 24, 29—
yiii., 1,4, 7, 8,9, 17, 18, 21.

THE TEUE RELIGION. 117

and judgment, as it implies imperfection, that is, all im-
perfection, peccability, or the least appearance of real
change.' He is ever pleased with the same, who can
delight in nothing but what is best. Nothing can
diminish His power or liberty: nothing but His own
natural perfection can dispose Him to any thing. In
sum, nothing which already is consummately excellent
can change to better, nor any wise being for a worse.
All change proceeding from ignorance and folly, weak-
ness and lassitude, and change would impair our love,
confidence, and even fear of God Himself. To con-
clude, God being infinite in power, can do all things ;
and of infinite wisdom best disposes of all things, and
has appointed to everything its limit, or left them a
dispositive ability of their own concerns. And some
things He will have governed by a law of necessity,
others of contingency, at least in respect of our under-
standing how things happen. For nothing of all this
falls out, but He foresees it and has decreed it, and
therefore it is no derogation of His power. Xor yet is
all this by distinct acts, or peculiar attributes, in re-
ference to God, but only in relation to our capacity.
Nor discovers it the least mutabiUty in the Divine
counsels. For His prescience is not the necessary
cause of contingency or necessity ; but therefore God
foreknows them, because they shall so happen. Nor
by this is His power restrained, that is, by either neces-
sity or contingency, seeing whatever He determined

' Statuerunt quse non mutarunt, nee unquam primi consilii
Deos poenitet. — Sen. de Ben.

118 THE TRUE EELIGION.

was and is, so as nothing can be more just, or more ex-
cellent. And being still a free agent, He can and does
alter things as to our understanding, though himself
remain unsteady and unmoved. A¥hen God alters His
dealings with men, according as they persist or fall,
and defect from their duty, it Is not from His muta-
bility, but rather from His unchangeable justice and
wisdom, which are ever the same.

Having asserted all these incommunicable perfections
in the Godhead, I shall not need to mention any dis-
tinct one of His holiness, they being all of them so many
parts of it, so as the nearer we come to any one of
them, in conformity of our life, that is, imitating His
justice, charity, wisdom, goodness, and truth, and all
other Divine virtues, the more we shall resemble His
hoHness, who has said. Be ye holy, for I am holy, and
that without holiness no man shall see the Lord.^

PART II. — TRINITY.

Now, as to the mystery of the sacred trinity, whereby
God is by us Christians acknowledged to be One in
essence, and of Three Persons, of which more in its
proper place. The sun in the firmament is but one,
and yet the fountain of light and heat; three distinct
things, yet operating all at the same instant. The
rational soul has three distinct powers — memory, under-
standing, will. Why may not there be three Hypos-
tases in three Subsistences ? They are indeed obscure

' I. Pet. 1., 16 ; Heb., xii , 14.

THE TKUE RELIGION. 119

resemblances, inasmucli as heat, light, memory, &c., are
not the same thing with the sun or soul, but only ema-
nations from them. But as these subjects are Divine,
the manner is wholly incomprehensible. And if we be
not capable of understanding things belonging to our-
selves, as men, (such as is the union of our soul and
body) how shall we ever hope to comprehend a mysteiy
of so sublime a nature ? Indeed, though it be unintel-
ligible, Reason cannot pronounce it impossible ; seeini;'
that the Divine essence is not of the same nature as
created substances. For though in the whole work of
God there be no instance like to it, but that one and
the same nature is always united in one substance ; yet
it is not consequent that the Divine nature may not
subsist in three persons, however inconceivable to us, as
not indeed falling under our sense.

That though the Divinity be as to His nature One
in essence, yet that He is Three in Hypostasis we be-
lieve, not from anything our reason dictates, but from
tlie word of God ; and therefore by an act of pure faith :
nor discovered to the world by any hght of nature, but
supernaturally revealed in time, and necessarily since
revealed, to be believed. As to those explanations of
councils and creeds, they have been piously set forth,
and endeavoured to unfold, rather for peace-sake, and
to silence all nice and eternal controversies, the falling
into errors, as of those who held three Gods, or totally
denied a Trinity of persons, than out of any confidence
of being able to describe the mystery in all its profound
dimensions. That which is therefore to be believed

1 20 THE TETJE BELIGION.

and professed by us, is that God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Ghost, is but one God; so as the
Son is not the Father, nor the Spirit the Son, but dis-
tinct persons, through a certain propriety, competent to
no being else. Farther than this, we are not able to
inquire, but humbly, modestly, and soberly, acquiesce
in what God has sealed up, and will have kept a secret.
This order yet we may find, that the Father is first ;
secondly, of Him, the Son ; thirdly, the Holy Ghost of
both ; as being so in order of Nature. The Father be-
getting; the Son begotten; the Holy Ghost proceed-
ing, to use the terms of Scripture:' Where, notwith-
standing, we sometimes find one of the Persons proposed
before the other upon occasion. But nowhere is the
Sacred Trinity so conspicuously set forth as at the
Baptism ^ of the Son. Moreover, the Holy Scriptures
distinguish the Persons (not essentially, indeed, but
hypothetically) as we have already observed; where
the Holy Spirit's proceeding is not to be understood as
produced, as some have pretended, but so as God the
Father is of Himself, the Son is of the Father, and the
Holy Ghost from Father and Son, co-equal, and co-
eternal. To the Father is attributed the work of Crea-
tion ; to the Son, the work of redemption ; to the Holy
Ghost, Sanctification. Not as if these three distinct
offices did aught detract from the Deity ; but for our
better comprehension of their several parts, or opera-

' See I. Cor., xii., 4, 5, 6; II. Cor., xiil., 14; Gal., i., 3.
- S. Luke, iii., 21.

THE TELE RELIGION. 121

tlons.' For all is from the Father, who made the world
by His Son, the Spirit of both co-operating. Farther
than this is rashness to go. "We must admire and adore,
but cannot hope to comprehend. It is a depth into
which councils, and fathers, and churches, and the
greatest wits, have fallen, and even lost themselves.
God will be believed, not examined. It is, besides, a
mystery, which no ways falls under the criterion of our
senses even the most sagacious; whilst of no corporeal
substance, (of which we may presume to judge, and are
enjoined to do so, before we give assent) we are to re-
serve it for that blessed time, when we shall see God
face to face, and as He is. It is sufficient, that here
we know Him by His works in the Creation, His Word
in Holy Scripture, in our souls and consciences by the
light of nature and reason. But, as for this of the
Holy Trinity and work of our redemption, and how
He operates in the hearts of the faithful, their vocation,
regeneration, justification, &c., we know nothing, but
by the light of grace. It is enough as to the mystery,
that whatsoever is predicated of God is God. Why
should we pry into what the angels dare not look into, but
cover their modest faces, whilst they sing Thrice Holy
to the Thrice Holy Trinity ? The Apostles asked not
Christ ; the Son has not revealed it ; the Father con-
ceals it, because we could not in this imperfect state
comprehend it. We behold the majesty ; we see not
into the mystery. We know that God is, and what He
is, namely, that He is a spirit, holy, just, good, wise,
' See I. Cor., viii., 6 ; Hebr., i., 2 ; S. John, x., 30.

122 THE TRUE EELIGION.

omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, immutable, and
eternal; but we know not His substance.'

By the Christian Trinity we mean not the mere
names, or a Trinity of words and logical notions only,
but of persons, apposita, and Hypostases. The Un-
created, One True God, Blessed for ever, whose attri-
butes of Incorporiety, Spirituality, Invisibility, Imma-
teriality, Simplicity, Infinity, Eternity, Omnipotence,
Omnipresence, Omniscience, "Wisdom, Knowledge, Jus-
tice, Veracity, Immutability, Providence, and univer-
sal Perfections, are all but one simple, formal Act in
God, distinguished thus for our comprehension only,
some whereof are communicable in an inferior manner
to the Creature, others whoUy incommunicable, proper
to God alone. And this is what we are allowed to look
into and to gather of the existence and nature of God,
both from His works and out of His Word, where we
are taught to adore His Divine perfections in other
mysteries, without dispute, which had all men learned,
and done in simplicity, they had been more knowing
and more happy ; whilst there is nothing more be-
coming our Christian profession, or, indeed, as we are
men, than an humble acknowledgment of our imbecility

' The Platonists had an obscure notion of a certain universal
Psyche, or Holy Spirit, as S. Cyprian thought. The Chaldeans
taught something of a Trinity. Plato also held that the Monas was
the universal principle, which produced the duality, or matter for
it to work upon. What the ancient poets and the philosophers
Zoroaster, Trismegistus, &c., intimated by their Trias, may be
seen in Origen against Celsus.

THE TRUE RELIGIOX. 123

and limited faculties, to grapple with such stupendous
mysteries.

Vv^e are likewise cautioned not to conceive of the
Divine properties and attributes as proceeding by way
of emanation out of one another, as frequently we
understand some of them in the creature; but, as we
have all along suggested, that whatever is said of them,
as of God, are God Himself, one pure act, without con-
fusion, or relation to time, flux, successive proceeding.
But whether we consider them negatively removing
impotence, imperfection, plurality, causes, accidents,
&c., or positively, by the works God has made, we must
conclude Him to be the most transcendently perfect
and noble Being, and acknowledge that we can never
reach an intuition of His being, M'liich is impervesti-
gable and past finding out. We may celebrate His
praises, and do Him homage, and best speak of his ex-
cellencies, by our silent admiration, since no words of
man or angel can worthily express Him.' He cannot
be seen by our bodily eyes, or fathomed and compre-
hended by our weak conceptions. In a word, who
thinks to comprehend the majesty of God, diminishes it,
and shall be oppressed with its glory.

INIore useful, therefore, and profitable were it for us
to know how to live well, and please this great and in-
finite God, than over-curlously to pry into these pro-
found abysses, lest, our heads growing giddy, we fall,
and drop into amazing depths, and be reproved. Let
us look upon His works, and into His Word, and labour
' Min. Felix Octav.

124 THE TKUE EELIGIOX.

to know Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It is more
necessary to skill how to plough and sow, to eat and
drink, than to know by what secret of nature and secret
operations corn grows, and food does nourish us. He
who fancies he can unriddle the Divine mystery, under-
values it ; and he that would not undervalue it, must
acknowledge it exceeds his comprehension. To con-
clude, then, after all we have said of God's attributes,
we are not to receive them as names of essences, but of
actions. Nor as if His existence were compounded of
divers ingredients, things, or quaUties : those which are
attributed by way of negation, are real attributes;
whilst affirmative properties are not applicable. We
may better say what they are not, than what positively
they be; but as to their quiddity, our knowledge is
ignorance, and so unsafe it is to multiply affirmative
attributes, that, as Maimonides says, we should stay till
one of the Great Synagogue take the chair, and (as
Evagrius) be tender of definitions, which, being con-
versant about things concrete only, have nothing to
do with things abstracted. To sum up all: though
Almighty God be but one, yet are all our faculties too
narrow to contain it; none but His own uncreated
nature, wliich is incomprehensible, can comprehend it.
We see and know Him only by reflected light ; where-
fore, the more humble our contemplations of Him are,
the nearer we shall come to Him ; and the nearer we
approach Him, the more shall we discern, and be
amazed at. His endless perfections. For His ways are
unsearchable, and His glorious essence past finding out.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 125

And yet, though we cannot attain this desirable
knowledge of Him here, there is so much to be learned,
as is of infinite use, and absolutely necessary to our
everlasting happiness, and preferable to aU other sciences
whatsoever. There is a congenite and connatural re-
lation between the object of a Deity and a created
intellect ; and even between this incommensurable
Being and our souls, which discovers its excellency,
and from whence it is derived. For some knowledge
of God is so essential to our felicity, that, albeit we
cannot comprehend and know Him in His transcendent
and incommunicable perfections, yet has He been gra-
ciously pleased to unfold so much of Himself as it is fit
for us to know, and as we can possibly contain through
the veil of our flesh, lest, by a more immediate intui-
tion, we should be struck blind, and oppressed with its
brightness.

And highly it concerns us to know Him, because He
is our Creator, Father, Benefactor, and Saviour — our
Supreme Good, and Ultimate End ; from whom we re-
ceive all we know, all we have, and all we hope for.
By Him it is we expect a glorious and eternal being
hereafter. And these. His excellencies, none can know
and seriously consider, but it must create and excite in
him (though a Heathen) a moral necessity of loving,
adoring, imitating, and serving Him, by all those
virtuous habits and capacities which may render him
most like to the Divine Being, whom so to know is life
eternal and consummate happiness.

126 THE TRUE RELIGION.

SECTION II. OF ANGELS AND MINISTERING SPIRITS.
I. THEIR NATURE.

Come we to Avhat is next in the order of beings,
namely. Angels and Spirits, and to souls intellectual;
all of them separate substances, different from matter,
and objects of our senses; the nearest both in exist-
ence and attributes, honour, and alliance to God, the
first and most excellent of beings. We begin with
Angels and Spirits, created and sent forth to attend on
the God who created them,' and to minister to His other
works, especially to man, who is in the next rank of
PIIs creatures, and though inferior to the excellency of
their nature, is no way so by the dignity of his relation,
as we shall come to show, when we speak of the man,
Christ Jesus, who took^ not the nature of angels on
Him, but the seed of Abraham, and was and is Incar-
nate God.

Angels are Spirits, and immaterial substances, made
to glorify God and perform His service, both in heaven,
their mansions above, and in the inferior world. That
such there are is not to be denied. For, if whatever
appears besides the nature of corporeal beings, be not
the actions and effects of separate souls, it must of ne-
cessity be of some other spirits, which did never animate
bodies ; by the ancients called Intelligences, for their
excellent knowledge ; creatures of a higher class and
degree than those who have animated bodies, such as
the souls of men. Nor is it to be doubted but that
' Hebr., i., 14. ' Hebr. ii., 16.

THE TRUE HELIGIOX. ]27

there are degrees in the rank of beings, which, border-
ing on the extremes of some middle natures, compose
that harmony in the Universe :' showing that there are
no abrupt and precipitant transitions from one extreme
to another, but by sweet and intermediate degrees, as
may be instanced in all the elements and things of
nature. Thus, we find even some stones in a manner
vegetable, and plants after a sort sensible, and, as it
were, animal ; and some animals among the brutes ap-
proaching very nearly to man himself, so extraordinary
is their instinct, as to partake of reason; and among
men, some are of those rare and incomparable endow-
ments, as seem on the confines of Spirits. All of them
participating of two natures, that above, and that be-
neath, taking hands, as it were. And thus does Man
stand between Body and Spirit ; Angels, between the
souls and spirits of men, and some Being superior to
their own nature, which is the God who created them.
As there are, then, bodies without spirits, so are
there certain Spirits without bodies, which, though not
seen by outward eyes, are yet sufficiently manifest by
their effects ; not lilie human souls, according to nature,
but sometimes even contrary to it. Intellectual, pure,
immaterial minds, who see and are not seen, hear and
are not heard, feel, and are not perceived, rejoice, and
are (haply) grieved with the sons of men, and in this
come near our rational natures. They are not gene-

' Atque his quidem gradibus, a prEEstantissimus ad infima
paulatim pervenit natura, ordineque descendit. Max. Tyr. Diss.
14; DeDeo Soc.

128 THE TRUE RELIGION'.

rated, nor do they multiply, yet are innumerable. They
die not, nor do they change, because their essence is
indisslpable, their substance incorporeal, as is evident
by their penetrative faculty, endowed vrith wonderful
strength, agility, knowledge, and vast experience. Great,
yet not infinite ; powerful, not omnipotent ; intelligent,
not omniscient; nor know they God's decrees, nor
future contingencies, no, nor the thoughts of our hearts,
nor of one another, farther than what is revealed ; nor,
though exceedingly glorious, (I speak of the good
angels, for there are also bad angels, who have lost
some of these privileges) yet not so pure and transcend-
ently bright, but that they veil their faces at His pre-
sence, whose eyes are ten thousand times brighter than
the meridian sun.

That they discourse with one another is no doubt :
how they do it, school-men are hot agreed. The
Apostle speaks of the tongue of angels,' and in his
rapt,^ that he heard things unutterable. They sang
glory to God, and on earth peace, good-will, towards
men, at our Saviour's birth. But by what organs, or
intuition, rather, they converse, is too subtle for us to
find : though that they do discourse, none, I think, do
question. For had they not some way to understand
one another, they should not have those perfections
which are suitable to their natiu-es. That they see and
know all things in God, is but conjecture, nor is it
much material to oiu: subject; whilst the curious may

' I. Cor., xiii., 1. =11. Cor., xli., 4.

THE TKUE EELIGIOX. 129

consult the learned, who have largely handled this dif-
ficulty.'

We have mentioned the probable opinion of interme-
diate substances, not as anything new, or of Divine
revelation; but as comparing superior with inferior
things in mutual concatenation. Nor has this been uii-
thought of by not only Plato and his followers, but
asserted by divers learned among the Christian writers.^
The. Prince of the Peripatetics, Aristotle, speaks^ plainly
of their several natures. But, as wc are taught in
Christian philosophy, the angels, having been educed
out of nothing, are reducible to it again by the power
which raised them, though, doubtless, that power shall
never be put into act. In the mean time, and once for
all, whenever we call God a Spirit, it is to signify by
that name that He is no body, magnitude, or matter,
but the Omnipotent Creator of both body and spirit,
to do with them as Pie pleases, who is of a nature in-
conceivably above all beings — a pure and simple act.
And therefore angels, though spirits, are from that, and
have many other defects, so infinitely short of the nature
and essence of God, that albeit, in respect of man, they

' Consult Aquinas ; Prosper Epist. ad Demet. ; and of the
Fathers, Ambrose, Theodoret, Chrys., Plom. 22, &c.

' M. Felix, Tertullian, Lactantius, &c.

" As, firstly, things invisible, viz., intelligences, of the upper
rank. Secondly, things visible, viz., all the furniture of the
aspectable world. Thirdly, substances participating of both : Cfer-
tain incorporeal existences, perdurable and impassive principles, as
to common mortality.

VOL. I. K

130 THE TRUE EELIGION.

are truly spirits, in comparison of God, they may be
said to be but bodies.

Whether these glorious creatures, refined as they
are, are totally devoid of matter, has been so great a
question, that Origen will have nothing to exist without
it, save God alone ; and yet affirms not that angels are
bodies, but in body ; nor does the great St. Augustine
speak much otherwise, not to say TertuUian, who had
so slender comprehension, how anything could be alto-
gether incorporeal, as hardly to exempt the Deity itself.
They generally held that, at the Resurrection, the Saints
should be qualified as the bodies of angels, whilst the
Sadducees would not admit of any substance between
the Deity and sensible matter ;' and by consequence
that none of the Prophets and holy men were divinely
inspired, accounting their writings merely the produc-
tions of human wisdom.

II. OF THEIR NAME.2

Of the name, dignity, office, and abode, something
yet remains, as well as of their creation ; which most
divines have assigned to the fourth day's work ; making
them coevous with the eldest daughter of the Almighty
fiat. Light, when all the sons of God shouted for joy, and
the morning stars sung their Creator's hymn. Others
deduce it (not improbably) some time before even the

' Thus Origen is said to have made the Deity corporeal, with
the Antliropomorphites ; but it was a calumny, and is refuted in
his book TTfpl apx<av, and in the eight contra Celsum.

^ See Aug. de Civ. Dei, lib. xi., c. 9 ; Psalm civ., 4 ; Col., i., 16.

THE TRUE KELIGION. 131

Genesis of the world; but of this, opinions are so
A'arious, that to recite them would be tedious.

The name, seldom or rarely used in Heathen authors
till they conversed with Christians, includes its office,
and has in sacred writings several acceptations ; some-
times for created, sometimes for uncreated beings, espe-
cially in the Old Testament, where we have not only
the son of God, but the whole Trinity ^ entertained as
angels ; not to speak of such ^ as have been sent to
preach the Word of God, but of those who (as their
names implied) have been despatched immediately from
Heaven upon errands of high importance ; such as ap-
peared to David, Daniel, the Blessed Virgin, St. Peter,
and other holy persons, commonly in the shape of young
and beautiful men; seldom or never in hideous and
brutish forms. For we speak not here of devils, who,
though spirits of darkness, do often change themselves
into angels of light, by God's permission.

Of their nature, we have already spoken, where we
have showed them to be intuitive spirits, immaterial,
profoundly knowing, powerful, and immortal, as void of
all physical composition. The name and notion of in-
telligences we have from Aristotle ; Daimones from their
deep intuition, at least of natural things and their
effects. In a word, (says Minutius) Poetce^ sciunt phl-

' Conf. Heb., xiii., 2 ; Gen., xviii., 3 ; xix., 2.

' As the angels and bishops of the churches, Rev., i., 20.

' " Poets pretend to know, philosophers disagree, Socrates knew
personally, and either shunned or sought things, at the beck and
will of a Daimon constantly attending him."

k2

132 THE TEUE RELIGION.

losopM differunt, Socrates novit, qui ad nutum et arhi-
trium assidentis sibi dwmonis, vel declinahat negotia, vel
petebat. Whilst every man was thought to have his
tutelar, his good or bad angel : Hermes, of old, Lac-
tantius,' and others, asserting the protection of one
good spirit to the good, and that in no wise did an evil
spirit attend the good man; and that it was a good
spirit which so constantly accompanied Socrates, as in
our times Cardan, and haply friend Boyle.^

III. DIGNITY.

Touching the rank and dignity of this bright hierarchy,
Dionysius makes theee classes, and to every one as
many. 1. Cherubim, seraphim, thrones; 2. Domina-
tions, powers, virtues; 3. Principalities, archangels,
angels. But of these, since none are certain from an
uncertain and suspected author, we may suspend our
belief, whilst we find not above four reckoned by the
apostle;"^ and whether they signified different orders,
St. Augustiae* confesses himself to be ignorant. In
the mean time, those of the seven first the E-abbins
have named Oculos Dei, the eyes of God, from their
extraordinary sagacity ; ' and we argue a distinction

' Lact. de Orig. Error.

' For what the ancients held on this, the curious jnay consult
Hierocles, Max. Tyr., Proclus, Plotinus, Platonists, &c.

' Col. i., 16; Eph., i., 21.

* S. Aug. in Enchir : " Fateor me ista ignorare."

' Conf. Gen. iii., 24: Isaiah, vi., 2; 1 Thess., iv., 16; Kom.,
viii., 38 ; I. Cor., xv., 40.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 133

from that expression, " above all principality"^ &c.,
taken, doubtless, from the names of dignities of the
Persian empire, accommodated to their degrees.

IV. ABODE.

As to their abode, being spirits, it is uncircurascribed.
Philo places not only Evil, but the Blessed Spirits,
among the elements. There are, says he, in the aer an
holy company of unbodied souls, called angels, not con-
fined to any definite 'place, filling sometimes a larger,
sometimes a lesser space ; nothing remaining empty
which God has made. And some of these they ■wUl
have of a fiery, others of aerial substance ; and have,
accordingly the names of cherubim, seraphim, &c., fitted
to their ministry of governing orbs, constellations, ele-
ments, kingdoms, plants, animals, especially man, by
those Sfov naSlas Koi (fiiKovs, the SOUS and friends of God,
as Maximus Tyrius calls them. They attributed the
fierce and fiery nature to the archangel ]\Iichael ; to
Gabriel the watery, as the more gentle and benign.
That the first flies with but one wing, slowly, the other
with both, to note God's unwillingness to punish, and
readiness to pardon. These are rabbinical fancies: whilst
the Gnostics held that most diseases were infernal spi-
rits, and only curable by charms, and incantations, and
downright blows ; for so, we are told,^ Apollonius Thy-
anaeus caused a miserable old beggar to be stoned to
death, at Ephesus, persuaded by that impudent im-
postor that the poor creature was the demon who
» Eph., i., 21. 2 Philod. Vit. ApoU.

] 34 THK TRUE RELIGION.

scattered the plague about that famous city, then in-
fected with it. Indeed, two learned physicians, Sen-
nertus and Fernelius,^ beheved they acted on human
bodies, especially in lunacies, agues, and the falling
sickness, and that they might be of different species,
according to their operations and assignments; some
appointed to protect, others to chastise. For it was
not from the Jews only that every man had his guardian,
as we showed the universal belief. And we have it
from our Blessed Lord,^ that even children had them,
too. Satan could apply a text of Scripture to the same
sense, though with malicious purpose, when he would
have had our Saviour precipitate Himself from a pin-
nacle of the Temple, upon that presumption.

T. OFFICE.

Doubtless, their office is to stand before the throne,
singing Tris-hagion- — Thrice-Holy — to their glorious
Maker, Head, and Establisher, the Holy Jesus. So to
execute His commands, they pitch their tents about us ;
they are a wall of fire around us ; they ascend and de-
scend continually for us, either to carry up our prayers
to God, or bring down blessings from Him ; and with
unseen but efficacious help defend us from innumerable
mischiefs. By these was Hagar comforted, Abraham
directed, Isaac saved from sacrifice, Jacob conducted.

^ [Daniel Sennertus introduced the study of chemistry into the
university of Wittenberg, (A.D. 1598) held that the souls of
brutes were not material. — John Fernelius, Physician to Henry II.,
King of France, born towards the close of the fifteenth centui'y.]

^ St. Matt., xviii., 10.

THE TRUE RELIGION. IS-J

By these was Lot rescued from the conflagration of
filthy Sodom ; by these were the children of Israel de-
livered out of Egypt; Elias protected; Sennacherib's
mighty host slain. By these He protects whole empires,
withstands false prophets, guards our persons, delivers
out of prisons. They repel the rage of fire ; they shut
the mouths of lions ; warn us of dangers ; guide us in
our ways ; are witnesses of our actions ; contribute to
and rejoice at our conversion ; and do us a thousand
good offices. What shall I say more, O, Blessed Spirits !
For the time would fail to mention and to celebrate
the services we receive from you, who desert us not in
perils, nor forsake us in death itself, transferring our
souls into Abraham's bosom. Happy, thrice happy
spirits, ambassadors of the happiest message that was
ever brought from Heaven to earth, " Glory to God on
high, on earth peace, good will towards men ;" when ye
came with those blessed tidings, " Behold a Virgin shall
be with child, and shall bring forth a Son, and they
shall call his name Emmanuel;" which, being interpreted,
is, God with us ; and if God be with us, who can be
against us ? or if any be, who can hurt us ?

Hail, then, all hail, ye glorious beings, angels of light
and bliss, who, persisting in your original perfection
and unstained loyalty, have been ever faithful to your
King ; who, always beholding His resplendent face, de-
light to do His will ; who, wrestling with us for bles-
sings, suffer yourselves to be overcome ;' who descending

' See Gen., xix., 16 — xxxii. 1 ; Ps. xcL, 11, 12; S. Luke, xvi.,
22 — XV., 7 ; Heb., i., 14 ; S. John, v., 4.

136 THE TRUE EELIGION.

into the troubled waters, render them salutary, and
make all our affections conformable. With infinite
satisfaction do you behold us poor creatures strive to
imitate your obedience, and, for the love ye bear to the
honour of our common Creator, cheerfully submit to
the meanest charge, taking even little children into
your protection. Celestial courtiers. Divine heralds,
how are we obliged to you! You annunciated that
sweet name ; you ministered to the fainting Saviour in
the Wilderness ; you comforted the agonizing Jesus in
the garden; you proclaimed the Resurrection; you
carry our souls into rest, and shall, at the Last Day,
gather our scattered dust from the four corners of
the earth;' when the trumpet shall sound, and the
graves shall open, and the dead arise, and the voice of
the Archangel shall be heard to sing "Holy, Holy,
Holy, Lord God Almighty, Heaven and earth are full
of the majesty of thy glory ! To Thee all angels cry
aloud, the heavens, and all the powers therein: to
Thee cherubim and seraphim continually do cry," and
we Thy poor creatures with them, under their feet.
They to praise and glorify Thee for Thy glory and
benefits : we to adore and pray unto Thee for ourselves,
that we, their fellow-servants, may be happy with
them, behold the fair beauty of the Lord, and worship
in His Holy Temple. They are present, says St. Ber-
nard, non modh tecum sed etiam pro te, not only with
Thee, but for Thee ; delegated and sent forth to take
care of such as shall be heirs of salvation ; intimated by
' I. Thess., iv., 14-16; Ps. cxlviii., 2.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 137

their ascending and descending on Jacob's ladder, to
denote the continual Providence of God.

But what the Almighty's especial vigilance is over
the greater societies of men, kingdoms, and common-
wealths, yea, and over whole nature, rolling the wheels
of their destiny, see (amongst others) Clemens, Alex-
andrinus, Tertullian,' and Origen.^ In short, so con-
stantly were they employed, that the ancient Jews
affirmed that God never spake to mortals (Moses only
excepted) but by the voice of angels. Not that God
employs these powerful ministers, as if the government
of the world were a molestation, or any drudgery to
His omnipotent and omnipresent nature; but for the
glory of His majesty, and to communicate to His crea-
tures of His goodness and bounty, by intermediate
beings, who continually behold His face, contemplate
and adore those perfections, which he diffuses on us by
them.

Not to multiply beings, therefore; that there are
such beings and spirits we nothing doubt, seeing none
of those other beings among the creatures are able to
effect any thing of great and illustrious, but what con-
cerns the body and the preservation of themselves.
They know not many things belonging to their own in-
terior functions, involuntary actions, and the like, (I
speak here of man, the nearest in knowledge and per-
fection to angels) much less can they command the
elements, inflict diseases, change the seasons, and by
unseen hands protect their friends, or shield themselves
" Tertull. de Baptis. * Orig. Horn., 82, in Gen.

138 THE TRUE RELIGION.

from a thousand accidents. Nothing but some supreme
virtue, above all matter, and of a higher orb, could do
any thing of this ; though, when aU is done, they can
do no more than is given them from some being superior
even to them, who in respect to Him are as nothing.
Something or other is deficient in all beings to make
them perfect : therefore, there is a being above them,
consummate, and wanting nothing. All numbers com-
mence at one — all effects proceed from One, who is the
prime and first cause, the spring and fountain of all
other subordinate causes and effects, and has therefore
right to command and govern all, both angels and
men.

But, further, as to the natures of these immortal
spirits. The angels were all, at first, created good;
but some there were who persisted not in their original
state. So as aU of them had need of grace to preserve
them from defection ; and this they had, not from their
nature, which we see was lapsable, but from the grace
and favour of God, who, foreseeing their perseverance,
elected them in Christ,' whom he constituted to be the
head and mediator, both of angels and men : and by
whom they are now confirmed, so as never to fall from
this grace, or lose their innocence. Before, it was pos-
sible they might have done this, having nothing to
compel their will, which was free and unconstrained. I
know there are who dispute this, as if this confirmation
of their liberty to persist in goodness were a diminution
of it ; that the angels merited this happiness. But this
' Coloss., i., 16-20.

THE TEUE RELIGION. 1 39

reward preceding their obedience, takes oiF all objec-
tions.'

Of these, that Is some (from among the whole host of
immaterial spirits) persisting not in their original per-
fection, but abusing their excellent faculties, were cast
down from their lofty habitations. But upon what oc-
casion, Is not so clearly manifest, nor Is it absolutely
necessary we should know. Some think it was for
malice, that God should exalt the nature of man in
Christ above them ; but their lapse being before that
of man, this could not be it. Others, that they sinned
against the Holy Ghost ; others for disobedience to some
certain law peculiar to them, and the like :^ while the
Scriptures seem rather to show us it was their pride
and ambition," whether in thought, or act, or both,
arrogantly affecting the throne of the Most Highest.
Nor was this conspiracy of a few, but of innumerable,
who enjoyed, perhaps, their happy state long before this
apostacy ; nay, and might persist in a course of dis-
obedience and Impiety.

For, indeed, the lapsed angels could not be tempted
to evil by any above themselves, and therefore was
their deflection merely from themselves. It is likely
they beheld their natures to be so glorious, so powerful,
sublime, knowing, and perfect, that, priding themselves
in their own accomplishments and combined strength,
they would now no longer depend on their Creator,
but envying His omnipotence, made some effort to de-

' Thorn. Scotns. * Gen., iii., 5 ; S. Matt., iv., 9.

' I. Tim., iii., 6. See St. Aug. de Civ. Dei, lib. xi., c. 14.

140 THE TRUE RELIGION.

throne the Ahnighty. For this Ingratitude they were
precipitated into the burning lake,* confined to their
dismal prisons, and bound in chains of darkness.^ And
that these were not a few, nor of the inferior ranks, we
conjecture from the various names of them we find in
Scripture: Beelzebub, their Prince, Satan, the Devil,
the accuser of the brethren. Prince of the "World, gods
and princes of the age ; the Roaring Lion ; the Great
Dragon, the Serpent, Abaddon, Apollyon, Murderer
from the beginning, &c. Of another class are the
Demons, Rulers of Darkness, spirits of wickedness, the
Tempter, all of them names expressing their nature and
monstrous pravity. And as the corruption of the best
is always the worst, so these, from the most pure, pious,
and excellent, became the most unclean, impious, and
execrably wicked. The Manicheans, indeed, held that
some angels were created evil, and some of the school-
men, that they fell of necessity, from that text before
quoted, which says that the devU was a murderer from
the beginning;^ but which by no means signifies to
that sense, but to the beginning of man's being in the
world, not to the creation of angels. Their not stand-
ing in their integrity plainly intimating that they were
once in it, and stood unshaken for a time. But, though
they lost their happy station, and many other perfec-
tions, yet did they not their essence, power, and natural
faculties altogether ; that they might be God's execu-
tioners, to revenge himself upon the wickedness of men,
' S. Luke, X., 18 ; n. Pet., ii., 4. ^ g j^^g^ g_

' St. John, viii., 44.

THE TRUE EELIttlON. - ]41

who follow their example, and for trial of good men,
who resist the devil's temptations, and live uprightly.

In the mean time, this power of theirs, though very
great in the inferior world, where they are sometimes
permitted to range and roar about, is so limited, that
they cannot so much as enter into a herd of swine, nor
create the most despicable vermin, without the express
permission of Almighty God, much less do mischief to
any man, without His leave. ' A se ipso, eaja Gregory,
libidinem nocendi habet, sed d, Domino potestatem.^ The
miracles which he seems to do, are lying ones, wonders,
not true miracles. He may effect some things besides
the order of some particular nature, through his great
experience and knowledge of actives and" passives, but
nothing besides the order of universal nature, estabhshed
in the Creation. He has, indeed, craft to seduce ; is
the father of lies and calumnies ; exerts his malice, and
seeks, with all his might, to bring men into the same
condemnation ; and, since he cannot invade the throne
of God, levels all his spite against his creatures, and
would confound the whole Creation at once, were it in
his power.^ And, therefore, that he may provoke God
against mankind, he sets upori us with aU his arts and
stratagems, injecting the horrldest suggestions, blinding
men's eyes, enkindling lusts, provoking to wrath, mur-
ders, theft, and all manner of abominations leading to

' Job., 1.

' " Of himself he hath the desire to harm us, but from God
the power.''
' Kev., xii., 9.

142 THE TEUE RELIGION.

perdition. Being themselves without hope, they would
drive all others to despair, employing all their force and
serpentine craft, by temptations to pride, ambition, re-
venge and hypocrisy, sins which cast themselves out
of heaven, deceiving the world with their impudent
oracles, false prophets, impostures, and abominable idol-
atry. He exerts his devilish power by sometimes in-
flicting diseases, poisoning the air, raising tempests,
subverting and submerging houses, cities, and whole
countries — blasting the fruits and product of the earth ;
and sometimes, again, for his ends, may, perhaps, by his
magic spells, and to create an opinion in men of his
power and virtue, prescribe a healing medicine, direct
to hidden treasure, or take it from another man, to en-
rich his worshipper; nay, tell some truths, not for
truth's sake, but to gain himself credit, when he tells a
lie.' For so he can change himself into the shape of
an angel of light, exquisitely qualified to do mischief
either way ; nor this in vain, from the fruit of his first
fatal and crafty suggestions, ruining (as far as in him
lay) the whole race of mankind, and having been the
author of all those evils and calamities the world has
groaned under ever since.

The eflPects of these insinuations have created an
opinion in some men, that the nature of these spirits is
not altogether immaterial, but that there are an inferior
sort, who, though they lived many ages, did in tract of
time decay and cease. Famous, we know, is the story
of the dead Pan, about the time of the silence of the
1 n. Cor., xi., 14.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 143

Delphic oracle :' and some from that text in Jude, men-
tioning the " first estate " ^Yhich the angels lost, fancy
that with it they also lost their celestial natures, as
well as habitations; and becoming more incrassated,
were thereby passible, obnoxious to a kind of disso-
lution, and penetrable by that fire prepared for the
devil and his angels. Thus being between mortal and
immortal, they held that they enticed men, stirring up
the humours of the body, the irascible and concupiscible
appetites, to pervert their morals ; the vices of the mind
following the constitution of the body, where grace and
the special goodness of Grod does not prevent it.

We have showed how they seduced the world by
their pretended oracles, uttering voices and dark re-
sponses, by their enthusiast priestesses and Tripods ;
sometimes by the entrails of animals, the flight of birds,
&c. These were the lemures, satyrs, elfs, lares, nymphs,
the manes and inferiaj of the seduced Pagan world, and
who were to be appeased by bloody and beastly sacri
fices. Such the Empusw,'^ that of old appeared at

' [Plutarch relates this story (Xltpi rav iKk€\om6Ta>v x/"/<"")-
The substance of it is as follows : An Egyptian pilot, passing the
Echinades Islands, was hailed by a voice from the shore, bidding
him announce the death of the mighty Pan, at Palodes : and on
his uttering the words, as commanded, a prodigious groaning was
heard. Demetrius also states that the inhabitants of one of the
small islands off Britain told him (about the same time) that great
commotion of the elements, pestilence, &c., was occasioned by the
death of mighty spirits, whose existence, like a burning lamp, gave
no annoyance, but their extinction much.]

'^ "EnTTovcra, a horrible spectre, that changes its shape every mo-
ment. See Aristoph. Kana;., 290.

144 THE TRUE EELIGION.

funeral obsequies, as Suidas mentions; their hellish
pranks attested by innumerable instances out of profane
histories of undoubted credit. Of this sort might be
the spectre at the Rubicon, Caesar hesitating that tra-
jection; and also what appeared to Brutus the night
before his being slain, with other prestigious feats of
sorcerers in aU ages, assisted, as those deluded creatures
are, by those accursed spirits' insight into the secrets
and power of matter and natural things ; which they
abuse in contempt of God, striving to erect a kingdom
here, and affecting to he served as gods on earth, who
have been cast from Heaven. Desperate and hardened
are they against all that is good, nor capable of repent-
ance, because (as we have said) they had fuU liberty to
have stood, vast experience to have known, and, in their
intuition, had aU that was to happen before their eyes ;
whereas, man, whom they maliciously drew into the
crime, knew only by degrees, is frail by nature, nor of
so peremptory and determined wiU.

These are the spirits Euripides,^ (from what tradition
is obscure) calls oipavoTreTels, that fell from Heaven ; and
which Pherecydes, the Syrian, names a generation of
serpents. Verily, Trismegistus and Hierocles speak
extremely to the sense of Holy Scripture about the
lapse of man. Nor is it to be slighted what we read of
the Persians, observing an anniversary holy-day, to

' [Empedocles? Plutarch,speakingof the restlessness of debtors,
says — TrXafoKT-at KaOdncp oi oipavoneTeXs Tov E/iTTf SoxXcouy Salfioves
— "they roam about like those spirits of Empedocles, /aWen/rom
Heaven."]

THE TRUE RELIGION. 145

humble and afflict themselves for the death and destruc-
tion of vice ; wherein the remarkable ceremony was the
killing of serpents, in which figure, it seems, the devil
had frequently appeared amongst them. And at this
present time, most of the idols and prodigious statues
of both the Indian and Chinese temples are repre-
sented in the shapes of dreadful serpents and winged
dragons.

Now, though we never read of any good angel putting
on the shape of beast, or other deformed creature, yet
God Almighty Himself (the Second Person in the
Sacred Trinity) did sometimes honour angels and an-
gelic men (those lineaments of Deity, as some have
styled it) in human forms, and as such were worshipped
by Abraham, Jacob, Manoah, Gideon, David, and
others, before the Incarnation. But when the na-
ture of man was indeed exalted in Christ, who was
constituted the Lord of Angels, they then became our
fellow-servants, and we are forbid their adoration.'

Now, in whatever dismal recesses these unhappy spirits
properly dwell, we know it is no longer in Heaven.
Doubtless, in some caliginous receptacles, detained in
chains of darkness, though sometimes loosed, under per-
petual check. Some will have them banished into the
northern mists and foggy regions of either pole, from
that expression in St. Peter -.^ others condemn them to
the centre of the earth, and, if not there, to the vortices
and prisons of Hell itself, near its confines, expecting
with trembling their last and dreadful doom. Whilst
• Col., ii., 18. ' II. Pet, ii., 4.

VOL. I. L

146 THE TEUE EELIGION.

the Scripture styles them Princes of the Air, to be per-
haps hereafter totally deprived of light, when the sun
shall be darkened, and time shall be no more. In a word,
somewhere without that Divine influence, that joy and
light they once possessed. For where God's presence
is not, there is Hell, and consummate misery.

We have shown how the good angels encamp about
us, and that their ofiice is to protect his creatures.
Origen supposes that God acts to the interior dispo-
sition of man, and forms His decrees as He foresees he
will use the freedom of his wiU. To such a one, (says
he) namely, to one who resolves constantly to proceed
in the paths of virtue, He sends a guardian angel to
co-operate and be always with him ; and to one who yet
lives better He appoints an angel of a superior order, for
his attendant ; but takes away this aid from those who,
having begun to live a holy life, fall back from their
integrity.

What the number of angels may be is uncertain.'
But that there are many, nay, multitudes, is indis-
putable. They encamped about Jacob,^ and were a
liery army against the Syrians.^ Daniel saw thousand
thousands ministering before the ancient of days.'' And
as their number is great, so neither is less their power.
Consider we but what they did, not only in the camps
we spake of, but the mortal slaughter of the Egyptian
First-born, i* the seventy thousand slain for David's

' See Euseb. Prsep. Evang., lib. vii., c. 4. ' Gen., xxxii., 2.

' 2 Kings, vii., 6 — xix,, 35. * Dan., vii., 11.

5 Exod., xii., 29.

THE TRUE KELIGION. 147

pride.' But though the evil angels are thus strong,
and so malicious — though the devil be come down,
having great indignation, because he knoweth that he
hath but a short time, and therefore denounces per-
petual hostility to the seed of the woman which bruised
his head — yet is there a power above him, at the thought
of whom the devils tremble,^ and to whose iron sceptre
they all submit; so that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor powers,' nor things present, nor
things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other
creature, shall be able to hurt those who flee to God
for succour, who has promised not to sufier us to be
tempted above that we are able, but will also with the
temptation make a way to escape.' And if evil angels
beset us, the angels of the Lord encompass round about
them that fear Him, and deliver them. For the chariots
of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels ;
and more are they who are for us than those who are
against us.

The use we are, then, to make of this, will lead us to
the contemplation of that Infinite Being, whose minis-
tering spirits these angels are. Secondly, that since
such glorious and mighty spirits fell, we take not only
heed to our footsteps, but praise our gracious Maker,
who, when we fall, lifts us up ag^n, so we fall not pre-
sumptuously and finally. Thirdly, that since they pro-
tect and serve us with such readiness, who are so much

' Sam., xxiy. ^ S. James, ii., 19.

^ Col., ii., 15 ; Rom., viii., ?8, 39; Heb., ii., viii.
* I, Cor,, X,, 13,

L 2

148 THE TEUE EELIGIOlsr.

inferior to them, we as cheerfully serve and assist one
another. Lastly, that, considering the malice of Satan,
our own frailty, the presence of so great a God, who spies
out all our thoughts, as well as actions, instead of re-
joicing the holy angels at our conversion, we grieve
them not by our perversion ; which that we may always
remember, let us take the advice of a holy person,' In
omni loco, in omni angulo, rewrentiam exhihe tuo angelo ;
neqiie ilk prwsente facias, quod me prwsente eruhesces?
Revere thyself, and put on the wavoTrXiav, the whole
armour of the Apostle, that we may be able to resist,
yea, and overcome him. He flies at all, nor spared he
our Blessed Lord. Nor is it sin to be tempted, but not
to resist it, is the fault. To suffer temptation is indeed
a misery ; but to set upon its mortification, an occasion
of virtue. In a word, not to be tempted happens to
none alive. Freedom from temptation has in it more
safety, but less honour, if we resist, and from such he
flies.^

SECTION III. OF THE INTELLECTUAL SOUL.

We have already spoken so copiously on this subject,
that the soid and thinking part of man is not contradis-
tinct, but absolutely diverse, from that of other animals,

' S. Bernard.

^ "In every place, in every corner, show reverence to thy
angel, and do nothing in his presence, that would shame you in
mine."

' He that would see more concerning angels, their Establish-
ment and Fall, may read the 11th and 12th books of St. Aug.
De Civ. Dei.

THE TEUE RELIGION. 149

or material principles, and that there is such a pecuhar
substance belonging to man alone, that we shall not need
farther to enlarge upon it, than briefly to set down
what does chiefly occur concerning its original and pro-
duction, with a short repetition of some arguments for-
merly touched.

A learned Father ■ was of opinion, that aU the souls
which were ever put into bodies were created at once
and altogether from the beginning, and ever since re-
served in store by God, to be from time to time (in
their turns) infused into them, as man's production and
successive matter require.

The Egyptians, and from them Pythagoras, held
that, there being only such a definite number of souls
created, they transmigrated into other bodies of men,
or other animals, when any body died.

A third sort would have the soul of man (as of other
living creatures) to be propagated by the seminal tra-
duction of the natural parents successively, from the
first person and womb that ever conceived : this virtue,
nevertheless, to be first ew nihilo created and infused.
And lastly, (with St. Augustine) others, especially the
modern divines, that tliis intellectual particle was not
only so created, and infused in our first parents, and so
transmitted, but by an every-day's, yea, every moment's
new creation and infusion, was immediately, divinely,
and miraculously poured into each individual concep-
tion, which came to life and animal motion.

Indeed, the two first of these have been generally
' Origen.

loO THE TEUE RELIGION.

exploded, and therefore deserve not to be insisted upon ;
the two latter warmly controverted, and, for aught I
can perceive, with no unequal probability. In the
mean time, that man consisted of three parts, or prin-
ciples,' spirit, soul, and body, St. Paul has somewhere
not obscurely intimated ; or, as Plotinus, vovs, the mind
only was attributed to man, as immediately infused —
as created de novo and ex nihilo, upon every quickened
conception ; or, as others taught, seminally traduced by
the parents ; whilst the two other were common to us
and brutes. Nor doubt we but that body is the pro-
duct of body, together with the animal soul and life,
consisting of a subtile, ethereal spirit, or fiammula,
whose centre is the heart and veliicle the blood ; dis-
persed through the whole body by innumerable pas-
sages, to give it life and motion, and which, through its
exceeding volatility, as it exhausts itself, is continually
supplied and repaired again by constant aliment, elabo-
rated in proper vessels and divers circulations ; whereby
the animal life is maintained, (as the flame of a lamp by
the supplies of oil) and all the faculties belonging to a
sensitive creature kept in motion. But this by the
way ; for it is not here we intend to dilate upon the
mere animal life, but that intellectual principle which
does, somewhere or other, reside in man alone.

That it is diffused, and takes up the entire body, has
been the wrangle and altercation of those who have
confounded all the world with their inextricable jargon

' 1 Thess., v., 23 ; Genea., ii., 7; Eccles., xii., 7; Job, xxxi., 15
— xxxiii., 4 ; Isai., xxix., 24 ; Zech., xii., 1 ; Acts, xvii., 25.

TUE TRUE RELIGION. 151

and definitions. If, indeed, we did judge and reason at
the extremities of our fingers or toes, or, that any other
remote and external member being cut off, the intellect
were prejudiced, there were some appearance for the
assertion : but, so long as the more noble organs remain
untouched, it proves otherwise. Why, then, should it
be rather assigned to the sensible and tactile faculty,
where the understanding does not at all exert itself,
than where it so conspicuously does, and from whence
it universally irradiates all the rest, namely, from the
head? Nor yet, as confined, but as the Sun in the
Firmament;' not, I say, in loco, but hubitudine, as
logicians speak ; nor as in brutes, co-extended with the
body, so as but part in a part, the whole in the whole,
but as impartible — all in every part — filling the recep-
tacle, yet taking up no place of it ; nor as co-augment-
ing with the growth of the body, only beginning there
to be, where before she was not, and ceasing to be
where she lately was. So that, of all created beings,
she alone is the most resplendent mirror, image, and
epitome of her Creator, since, as God, she is invisible ;
as God, a spirit, though not such a spirit : she fiUs the
body, or microcosm, as He the universe ; neither occu-
pying place, nor being comprehended by place, whilst
she is yet All in every place. And thus, when a new
creature is produced, then God begins to be ; yet with-
out local motion to facilitate his admission : and when
that ceases to be, God neither ceases, nor is diminished,
but only ceases to be there, without change of place.
' See Lactant. De Opif. Dei, cap. 16.

152 THE TRUE EELIGION.

In these, indeed, God and the intellectual soul seem
to agree, but in Him with infinite more eminency, since
the Almighty governs and disposes of the Soul, as the
Soul does of the Body ; which yet she cannot do, were
she not the form which denominates the man, whilst
God is not made the soul, or form of anything He pro-
duces ; or as if of Him, and all that He has made, any
third substance should emerge, who is the Universal
All, Omnipotent, Intellectual, moderating, disposing,
and moving all, without being moved at all. And,
\\'hilst the human Soul is properly but in the living and
animate organs, God is all in all things absolutely, and
that not in bodies alone, but in spirits. Nor does any
thing exclude Him : for where He is not, nothing can
be. The Soul is, then, so in the body, as she serves
herself of the body, to perform her functions ; whilst
virtually, essentially, and communicatively, she is in
the whole and in every part, but more eminently in the
superior part, as is evident from the notorious interrup-
tion of her intellectual operations, when the head or
brain is vitiated : not that the Workman has lost skill,
but because his tools and instruments are broken or
dull, he cannot use them to any effect : nor that the
Soul were subject to the head or brain alone, or to any
other particular residence ; but for the reasons pro-
duced. Their assigning its place to be the pineal fflan-
dule is nothing but a conjecture, because anatomists
know not perhaps what other use to put it to, since the
same is found in the head of beasts as well as in man's.

The human soul is, therefore, a substance altogether

THE TRUE KELIGION. lj.3

independent of the body, or any part of it ; and conse-
quently, as a spirit, needs no such organ for its domi-
cile. Though she makes use of all, she dwells in none,
but as she adoperates and serves herself of the body
and its more eminent parts,' where the reason and in-
tellectual powers are, as it were, set on a watch-tower,
from whence she speculates, sends out her parties and
emissary senses, to discover and make report of what
they find ; in a word, all forms and motions, upon whose
relations she proceeds to judge and determine freely ;
which, if more apparently from the head, is by rea-
son of its being the principal mansion, where the sen-
sible species and ideas make their deepest impressions :
not after the manner of corporeal impulses, (a certain
recognition of the impulse) but rather a spiritual intui-
tion, the Soul herself moving and perceiving, and not
the body properly, which is all this while but a dead
piece of organized matter, and no more ; tuned, indeed,
and fitted with strings, but making no harmony without
tliis skilful artist. The Soul exercises, indeed, her
functions more conspicuously in the head; and it is
also for its structure and eminence the more adapted
instrument, nay, the Basilick, where the Great Creator
seems chiefly to have seated her, and from which the
intellectual operations issue and discover their effects.
For, though we perceive and feel our other parts
affected by the several passions, stUl the perturbation
sensibly proceeds from the head, where the fancy and
will follow the dictates of the practical intellect.

' 1, cV axpt^T^ aafiMTi,,

154 THE TRUE RELIGION.

Now, since everything in Nature requires place, and
a dwelling to reside in, and that spirits, and (as we
have showed) even angels, both immaterial, cannot
move beyond the universal body of matter, which is
doubtless their place — this Soul of ours, one would
think, should not be destitute of some figure and dimen-
sion, too. But of this we have no measures. Its nature
and excellencies so transcend our deepest inquiry as
to this particular, that we quite lose ourselves, and our
conceptions A'anish into figures and analogies, when
we would describe it. It is enough we are assured
that, whilst the Soul comprehends the Body, she her-
self is incomprehensible. A^^lerefore, though we assign
her place, and cannot but believe her moveable too in
time, we prescribe no limits, set her no boimds, nor
can we efiigiate or draw the profile. He, He only, who
formed her, can describe her, and to Him we submis-
sively resign this impervestigable research : so true is
that of an excellent poet:' —

Divinum est opus

Animam creare, proximum huic ostendere.

Nor with less difficulty shall we be able so much as
to conceive the manner of the Soul's act of understand-
ing — that an incorporeal substance should produce a
corporeal intellect, or, vice versa, how from corporeal
ideas there should result incorporeal perception; un-

' [Dr. Bathurst, a friend of the Author's, Dean of Wells, and
President of Trin. Coll., Oxford. See his " Life and Literary
Remains," by Thomas Warton.J

THE TRUE RELIGION. loO

less, with some of the Fathers, we allowed her to be of
such a contexture as were indissoluble, without being
totally incorporeal ; at least, of some middle nature, apt
to connect the animal soul without local mixture ; like
the union of steel and magnet : I say, to conceive how
she should act without some such concession, is hard.
For, though the soul may possibly exist without cor-
poreal organs, and perform some actions of life, yet,
being so adjusted to the body as she is, though she may
comprehend and contemplate intellectual notions and
reflect upon herself — nay, as a kind of Hypostatic self-
existent Ens, or being, subsist, as she acts in sleep
(wliich is the image of death) — how she should locally
move, see, and hear, and exercise other senses, without
the instruments of those senses, increases the admira^
tion. That the soul was not, therefore, of altogether
so metaphysical a nature, was the opinion of many
great and holy men, besides philosophers ; for such were
S. Athanasius, Origen, TertuUian, Damascene, S. Basil,
S. Jerome, and divers others; but intending, I sup-
pose, the pure and simple essence of God, to which all
other substances are but thick and gross, in compari-
son ; and then, it was also to encounter the Gnostics
and Manichees, Priscilianists, and other heretics, who
held the human soul' to be a part of the Deity itself,
even as to its very substance, which is, we know, the
only unconfined infinite and (ab origine) incommuni-
cable Eternal Existence.

But to solve these difficulties, of communicating her
operations so uncontrollably through such inactive mat-

156 THE TRUE EBLIGION.

ter as she daily passes, some have attempted to fix her
delicate substance in the fancy, and her ideas, without
any commerce with the lower functions; and so to
speculate those ideas, as to produce other ideas and
images more sublime, consonant to the acts of the un-
derstanding, the will remaining free. Indeed, this con-
cession Avould solve a mighty difficulty, were it as
intelligible as it is the contrary : or that they could tell
us how to unite an unelementated substance with cor-
poreal matter, how diluted and defecated soever, airy,
or fiery; since still it is a mixture of things incom-
patible.

Wherefore, the Cartesians are resolved to admit of no
substantial life anywhere, save in matter, making the
intellectual and rational soul but a sublimer modifica-
tion of it ; and that men differ from brute animals only
in the more curious organization, the use of speech, and
the like ; but do not in the least satisfy us how thought,
which is altogether incorporeal, and often conversant
with spirits, and metaphysical notions that have no
manner of relation to matter, should be produced by it.
If any life or thought may be thus factitious and gene-
rable, out of lifeless matter, so may everything else
in nature; which to affirm, were both nonsense and
Atheism.

Indeed, the material soul does likely give that motion
and activity to the engine body by sensation from the
external stroke — motion from the internal impulse of
objects, as we have showed: but how it comes to per-
form not only such actions as are of custom and purely

THE TRUE RELIGION. 157

necessary, but also to discern others more difficult and
progressive, and notions never derived from our senses,
does utterly exceed the capacity of matter, however
modified or refined ; namely, that life and sense, under-
standing and reason, should be merely local motion !
Wherefore, both Aristotle and Anaxagoras, finding
themselves at a loss about this mechanic fabric, (how-
ever fortunate the modern wits fancy themselves, and
brag of what feats they can do with their puppet) were
glad, it seems, to call in a mental cause to their aid ;
wliich is more than these gentlemen will allow and con-
descend to, after their machine has received its first im-
pression of motion ; whilst we have sufficiently made
appear, that no body or magnitude could ever possibly
move itself, but by the motion of some other agent :
and therefore some other substance there is, which is
not body : and to say that anything of this nature is
effected by forms or qualities, is a mark of great stu-
pidity.

Were the intellectual soul a material substance,
sensible and material things would Improve it, which
it is plain they do not. Men can speculate with shut
eyes, and that more profoundly ; and all material facul-
ties and conversation with sensual objects quite lose
their energy by their vehemency, whilst the intellectual
soul becomes more vigorous and enlarged, and can, and
often does, resist corporeal pleasure ; this she would not
do, were she herself corporeal. She is the same in
sickness as in health ; nor does age Impair her, because
there are in her no repugnant principles.

158 THE TKUE RELIGION.

We have abundantly showed that, though the human
soul be lodged in human bodies, which receive life,
animal motion, growth, and activity from the animal
life, yet this life is not capable of excogitation, or of di-
verting and improving any act or science, how old by
experience soever; nor can it deliberate, judge, and
determine rationally of things above the possibility of
sensual objects, common to us with brutes, who are
only concerned about things present, and such as belong
to the maintenance of the body, its nutriment, propaga-
tion, preservation, and pleasure. And, though amongst
some of them there may be found certain offers and ap-
proaches to reason, as in horses, elephants, foxes, dogs,
&c., yet they are but misty, obscure, and imperfect
strictures of it, and are still the same, nor advance they
farther than to instinct and repetition.

We have showed that, in all other creatures hving,
the sense and appetite govern the body ; whereas, the
soul of man governs both the body and its senses, and
often contradicts and resists them both ; and that some-
times even to death itself and cruel torments ; and
upon occasion rectifies the mistakes and hallucinations
they are obnoxious to. So unlike are the sentiments of
these two principles, the operations of the mind, and
those of the body, that there is no proportion between
them : for were their perfections any way propagable
by nature, one wise man would always beget another
wise man, which very seldom they do : Solomon begat
a fool, and some fools have been the fathers of wise and
illustrious persons. We have also made it evident, how

THE TRUE EELIGION. 159

the intellectual Soul is conversant about things totally
separate from sense and matter — speculates things in-
visible and abstracted — understands the nature of affec-
tions, of numbers, and mathematical figures — penetrates
into causes and effects — and is capable of taking into
its contemplation the whole aspectable world, passing
in a moment from pole to pole, and diving into the
profoundest abysses.

Brutes have sense, and memory, and fancy, in weak
degrees, and are susceptible of divers passions and
affections, as well as men; but comprehend nothing
above matter, and what is immediately before them.
They can be taught to imitate some particular things,
but they know not why, nor what they do, much less
have they any notions of religion, or the moral virtues,
nor know they any thing of spiritual and infinite, be-
cause all material operations are confined and limited,
and rise no higher than the spring of matter. Where-
fore, the intellectual Soul is a substance so transcend-
ently pure and sublime, as can proceed from none but
God, who created it; but whether immediately pro-
duced, without any progenial traduction or radiation,
as TertulUan, ApoUinaris, and others hold, and many
still assert, with no contemptible arguments, is, as we
said, the dispute.

St. Augustine and his followers were for a perpetual
creation and instantaneous ifiifrixaxns, or animation, by
way of infusion : whilst those of the school of Plato sup-
plied it out of a pre-existent magazine, immortal and sepa-
rate from body ; fancying that the species of aU things

1 60 THE TRUE RELIGION.

in nature were concreated together with our souls, which,
after their descent, (no more remembering what they
did or where they passed their time before they came
into bodies) learn and agitate here, by degrees, not as
fresh and new notions never known before, but as
things recovered by way of reminiscence and recollec-
tion, as the bodily organs grow more vigorous and
capable.

It seems, by this conceit, as if some heinous guilt,
contracted in a former state, were by this to be expiated;
seeing, if in their new mansions and province they had
governed wisely and better, they were in time to be
delivered from their Ergastulum,^ and restored to their
j)ristine happiness. Nor was it only the opinion of the
Platonists and Academics, lamblicus, Plotinus, and
their Disciples, but of the great Hermes, and even Aris-
totle liimself ; of the Pythagoreans, and many of the
Jewish Rabbies : established on that of Wisdom,^ "For
I was a witty child, and had a good spirit. Yea, rather,
being good, I came into a body defiled. "^ And there-
upon they have condemned some to do their penance in
despicable insects, as well as in the greater and more
generous animals, nay, in trees and plants, exposed to
wind and weather, and even reduced some of them to
annihilation. Nor was it, I s^, the notion of these

^ " House of Correction."

*. Wisd., viii., 19, 20.

' Eram puer bonam indolem sortitus, immo bonus cum essem,
corpus contaminatum reperi. [Some editions of tbe vulgate read
incoinquinatum, which is followed in the authorized version.]

THE TRUE RELIGION. 161

alone, but of divers christians likewise, and amongst the
Fathers, Origen,' against which St. Augustine some-
where declaims; and it sounds prettily indeed in alle-
gory, and would better pass, did we not by daily expe-
rience find how unwilling this imprisoned soul of ours
is to depart and leave its confinement, as punitive and
miserable as they pretended it to be.

It is on this account, they tell us, how this noble and
divine substance finds herself distressed, at her first
descent into the body, through the weakness of infant
organs ; as under durance, chains, and weights, till, with
the more mature and cultivated body, she arrives in time
to be able to exert her power — recover herself — and, by
illustrious notions, to discover whence she came, and
whither she aspires, and what a glorious thing she was
in her quondam state of separation; though now again
assigned to an unhonourable or perhaps mean apart-
ment, for probation and exercise of her virtue.

But, whilst we are describing these extravagancies,
Maimonides, I remember, tells us of a sect that held
the Soul, and all things else in nature, to be but only
accidents : and that all our knowledge is in perpetual
flux, and not the same to-day as it was yesterday, but
that there is an eternal creation : and so a man mut^t
have ten thousand souls every moment, and for every
motion and modality, whether he sits or walks, reads
or performs any other action or motion, as so many
accidents are souls created in the instruments perform-

' Origen, Ucpi apx; 1, 3, c. 3 and 4, c. 4 ; S. Aug., Ep. 27.

VOL. I. M

162 THE TEUE RELIGION.

ing them ! But of these perhaps more than enough ;
whilst that of traduction (for being asserted by cham-
pions of no mean account, nor without support of equal
argument) may deserve a paragraph in the chapter ;
especially since it is conceived it may be evinced without
any pre-existence in the platonic notion, or the least
violence to other truths, and solve its immortal and
indivisive nature; nor stands in need of new fabrics
and creations to attend every human conception. Xoi'
is it (say they) cogent, when they reckon from the
sacred text ' that God did absolutely cease from all
His works, to admit its only signifying His making
greater worlds, and not these microcosm terrellas : or
from that of S. John, "my Father worketh hitherto,
and I work,"^ if He be continually busied in new
creations ; when it may as naturally import His work
of providence in blessing and supporting what He has
made with His Father ; and, what is more, the work
of grace.

If, as it appears, and no Christian doubts, the Al-
mighty breathed into man the breath of life, by which
he became a living soul, what should hinder but the
same celestial inflation should be as apt to kindle into
millions, as the most actual flame first warms and then
heats and inflames the nearest disposed matter, without
any division or diminution whatsoever ?^ This allusion

' Gen. ii., 2. 2 S. John, v., 17.

' Integra lucema, Integra manet, licet altera de 1114 accen-
datur. — S. Augustine. — " The light of a lamp remains entire and
the same, though another be kindled from it."

THE TUUE RELIGION. 1C3

of the Soul to flame and light having, as Plutarch thinks,

so near a cognation to the Soul : and so the poet,

Igneus est oUis vigor, et caslestis origo
Seminibus.'

Sufficient, say they, was that blessing, " Increase and
midtiply," given and spoken by the great Creator to
the first couple ; not as a well-wilier only, but as pro-
moting and perfecting both the general and particular
act and power of His concurrence, with procreation, to
produce that potential being, the human Soul : and so
God, secondarily to His original benediction, may be
said to create or inform, but not out of nothing, (as in
proper sense it signifies) which were wholly repugnant
to His resting the seventh day, and to the positl\e
sense of the text. For, when God created Nature, it
was 'by a proper action and supernatural re-creation,
educing out of a chaos (in which were latent principles
and simple essences of all things) whatsoever he did
create: and doubtless established all her seminal powers,
to specify and produce all that she was ever to bring
forth, so as never to stand in need of any more and
immediate supplies: thereby illustrating His incom-
parable Wisdom and Providence, that, in so many thou-
sand years as the world has been created, nothing should
be defective, nothing desiderate, nothing impaired, no-
thing redundant or that needed any after better excogi-
tation, or second thoughts, to render this imiverse more

' "Th' ethereal vigour is in all the same :
And every soul is filled with equal flame."

Dryden — Virg., vi., 730.
M 2

164 THE TRUE EELIGION.

complete, or to carry on the succession of things to the
end, with this work of propagation, not only as to the
rest of animals in a life of sense, created before man,
(and whose souls God is not said to have in-breathed)
but to whole mankind, by a more peculiar and special
Grace, in a life inspired with reason. Nay, how could
man have multipUed in that manner, without this prin-
ciple, since, without it, it had not been to multiply his
own species, but a body only, without a Soul ; and such
as must have been free of all original taint ? Besides,
what necessity that all who derive her from the first
spark set in motion by the Divine Breath ' should
stand more in need of a new creation, than for men
(PrometheusTlike) to fetch fire from Heaven by an
extraordinary process and so many seeming absurdities,
so long as it is flaming in every hearth ?

I am very sensible how many great and worthy per-
sons (by far superior in name and number) dispute
against all this ; and, therefore, only repeat their argu-
ments, who tell us that their opponents might perad-
venture not look so far back, as was necessary to
conclude so dogmatically for daily and instantaneous
creations and infusions. Nor do they pretend as if any
Soul, springing from traduction, should be less from
God's immediate handy-work ; and may therefore be
called creation, seeing he had no assistant but the Holy
Trinity ; and so may still be said truly to give souls
every moment, by His general blessing on propagation,

' Theodoret, Ambrose, Hilary, Hierome, Calvin, Beza, BuUin-
ger, Ursinus.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 1 Go

from the first virgin soul infused into Adam; whom
accordingly we find called by the Evangelist, the Son of
God — the rest of mankind his progeny only.

As to those other Scripture arguments, a late revered
Doctor, ■ amongst others, has showed that the Soul in
Sacred AVrit is used with so great variety of sense, as
that httle material can thence be fetched to the disad-
vantage of traduction — the very notion of the Soul's
regeneration premising a generation. Nor can it (some
think) be safely made out how that secret contagion
of all the sons of Adam should be derived from the body
only; since it were with Pelagius to deny the soul's
being the subject not only of that, but of all other sin
whatsoever, '^ as accidens in subjecto. They fancy it very
difficult to conceive how this deadly spot should adhere
so pertinaciously without some traditative emanation,
seeing the body does not defile the Soul, but the will,
fancy, and understanding, which are the rational facul-
ties, and should govern all the rest.' Indeed, the senses
intromit the objects of temptation, but it is the other
who makes the choice, and determines them to act ; and
it is the heart * which is the source of our corruptions.
For, how should pure and uncontaminate spirits, never
before in being (without recurring to pre-existence, and
charging the souls with former guilt) come thus pol-
luted into bodies, nay, (and as some almost say) ere the

' Porter.

' S. Augustine, Epist., 157.

3 Mens enim est profecto, qua peccat. — Lactantius.

* S. Matt.,xii., 34, 35; Ephes., iv., 18, 19, 20; Jam., i., 13, 14.

1 66 THE TRUE RELIGION.

recipients had done good or evil, without injuring the
infinitely Divine benignity, purity, and justice ? Xay,
how could Seth he procreated in the image of his father,
(as all Divines agree) stained with the contamination
derived from Adam, but through the leprosy of his Soul;
which never signifies the entire person, and denominates
the essential man? For, were it otherwise, the lapse
were but personal, and would have determined in him :
whilst pollution is only chargeable upon the Soul's ac-
count, whose vassal is the body, moved and directed by
nerves, as by reins the rider does his horse.

To this they oppose the Soul of our blessed Lord ;
but I opine that it does not at all enter into these cir-
cumstances ; and, besides. It is a secret reserved for
another state, icken we shall know as we are known, not
as now, in part, but even this high mystery in all the
comprehensions of an exalted nature : nor, in the mean
time, is our ignorance reproachable. Excellent, there-
fore, is that advice of Tertulllan (however in other
matters not so consistent) Prcestat per Deum nescire,
quia non revelaverit, quam per hominem scire quia ipse
pi'wsumserit.^

It is sufficient to believe, as to this, that the Holy
Spirit sanctified the substance of the blessed Virgin,
from whom Christ assumed His sacred person : and as
it is not the Soul, but the concupiscent circumstances of
procreation, that induce the fatal taint, our blessed Lord

' "It is better to be ignorant through God, because he hath not
revealed, than to know through man, because he hath presumed."
— Tertull. De AnimA, c. 1.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 167

was not 80 produced : all was miracle ; aU was mys-
terious ; all pure, divine, and supernatural ; and " Who
shnll declare his generation ?" — Even He alone who in-
fused the Soul of the first Adam, and so might do of the
second.

The only remaining difficulty of importance, then,
seems to be, how but a single Soul should be produced,
which, being by nature indissoluble, simple, and inca-
pable of mixture, could receive no further perfection
from conjunction. To this it is oiFered, that the Soul
traduced is from the woman only ; neither is it less the
Soul of man, forasmuch as she was taken out of man :
nor do we read of two different inflations, or that there
were any other Souls created separate from her, but
what she received from Adam ; nor any other human
body framed from the earth, save only his. Nor are
they lastly, without as pious and learned suffragans,
when amongst them we find Cyril, Apollinaris, the
judicious and great Melancthon, Keckerman, Magirus,
liorsliuSj &c. ; and that the opinion was almost as uni-
versal as mankind through all the Western Churches,
as St. Jerome himself acknowledges.' Nor is Tertul-
lian to be slighted because the devout man fell into
some errors afterwards ; for, as much as the great St.
Augustine himself does hesitate and did not care to
deliver anything peremptorily against it ; nay, inge-
nuously confesses that he knew not what to pronounce,
which may serve one that should inchne to it for

^ TertuU. de Amm., c' 27, 40 ; Jerome Paulin., Epist., 2 ; St.
Augustine, Epist., 28, 157, and Serm. de Orig. Anim.

168 THE TRUE RELIGION.

apology ; and that he also, as well as others, has been
as much puzzled with his " Greando infunditur et infun-
dendo creatur^^ &c. — whether created or infused by one
inseparable act, or by infusion created ; in proportion to
the perfection and growth of the elemental principles,
and when the palace should be fitted to entertain the
royal guest; or, whether not aU infused, till all was
finished, or (as the Stoics) not till after birth, at the
first ingression of air, &c. ; which all are abstrusities as
entangling and mysterious as Entelechia itself.'

In the mean time, some there are who thought it a
diminution to the human Soul, that what has been held
to derive its existence from the immediate infusion of
the great Creator, should spring but from parental tra-
duction, as other animals do. Whilst others esteem it
to exalt its extraction, and do honour to her Maker,
whose divine power they do not necessitate and engage
to wait on every promiscuous blending ; some whereof
are highly unsuitable to His pure and Holy Nature.^
But, even in illegitimate commixtures, God blesses
nature, though not the perversion of it ; and thus, man
has will and strength to do many evil things by abusing
his faculties. This I speak with aU deference and sub-
mission to that late pious and excellent person. I say I
do not see how it can dishonour the Divine Author, or

' 'EvTeX/xf'a — [a name given to the Soul by Aristotle ; it has
given rise to much discussion (see Donaldson's N. Crat.) : now sup-
posed to signify that by which the body actually is. — Liddell and
Scott's Lex.']

^ Sir Matt. Hale's Prim. Origin of Man.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 169

His creature, to derive the Soul from a stock so ancient
— a pedigree of such a series — whose root is immediately
from the Almighty in the primary creation and infusion,
before the fatal lapse, and still resembling Him, when
purified by virtue and true piety, which restores her to
her primitive beauteous image: for, though with some
we make her not a goddess, nor with Phllo and the
Manichees, any part of that which is impartible — though
not with Empedocles, plainly a god, yet with Lactan-
tius, Deo Similem.^

Whatever, therefore, it be, this controversy is so
finely sifted, solidly and so fairly disputed on both sides,
tliat men will not find it easy to determine who is in tlic
right or has the better ; whilst man, consisting (as we
noted) of spirit, soul, and hody,^ the two latter may be
propagated, the first created, correspondent both to the
Platonic and divine notion.

We have showed how the Conciliators, from their
twofold production — the natural power of the creature,
and the absolute power of the Creator — have educed the
Soul out of some obsequious and obediential matter, so
as the new soul, sprung from Adam, may become tainted,
(as all of us are) though it should be immediately pro-
duced of God:^ by which there does not appear any
necessity of taking from God the honour of His original
creation of the Soul, who gave life and soul, and bid it
increase and multiply.

' Lanctan. De Opif. Dei, c. 17.

2 I. Thess., v., 23.

' Eccles., xii, 7 ; Job, xxxiii., 4.

170 THE TRUE RELIGION.

But to proceed : even the favourers of immediate cre-
ation and infusion, whilst the immaterial Soul exists in
God, (whose Providence alone is that inexhaustible
magazine of all intellectual beings) do allow traduction
to the elemental pre-existent matter of all sensitive
spirits whatsoever, which specify, by virtue of the fabric
and composure of their generator. Now, (say these) as
the sensitive and material Soul is propagated by gene-
ration, the immaterial is by creation. And first, for
that no ignoble cause, out of its own sphere of activity,
can produce a noble effect, (supposing a body to pro-
duce a soul) seeing the operations of the Soul are so in-
finitely superior to those of the body, as is manifest by
the manner of those operations; and that her objects
need no intercedent organ or medium between it and
the faculty, educing also those operations from within by
elicit and immediate acts, and such reflex ones as are
totally foreign to the comprehension of other animals,
perfecting the understanding by the most sublime and
abstracted contemplations, and qualifying it to pene-
trate into causes and matter supernatural — nay, and
even some out of the body, as ecstacies, rapts, visions,
introversions, acts of volition, intuitive knowledge, and,
above all, the Spirit of Grace — that she is likewise indi-
visible, as not having her being of form, that is, remain-
ing uncompounded, immortal, and if not infinite (as
God alone is infinite) yet, in a sort, indefinite, since
nothing can fiU and satisfy her which is less than
infinity.

Moreover, she does not see, hear, touch, or, indeed.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 171

exercise any sensual faculty, as the body does, things
adequate and congruous to its senses, and yet she per-
ceives intellectual notions, and what spirits and separate
beings are, nay, and universal notions and things which
have no real existence at all in nature. All which the
assertors of traduction do, in no sort, detract from,
whilst (as we have showed) they recur to a propagation
of the primitive soul infused into the first man, and as
capable of kindling others like it, as one torch to light
a thousand, without diminution of its own light, heat,
substance, or any other qualities; and this also in a
manner much more spiritual than any thing material it
can be resembled to: so as a body does not beget a
Soul, but the Soul a Soul, and the body a body only.
And why one Soul should not propagate another, as
animal does animal, or as divers sorts of fruits are
yielded by the same tree, without any transfusion or
decision of parts, no convincing argument seems to ap-
pear. Nay, even as to division, no mortal can know
how far spirits are indivisible, or whether they have no
seminal excrescences, as a late Doctor ' has noted :
j\Ien may be too much in the dark to determine; nor
why the one should not propagate another as well as
bodies do, are (say they) altogether as precarious and
conjectural. Wherefore, to conclude this controversy
with that text of Saint John, " The wind bloweth where
it listeth,"^ &c. Maldonatus hath this excellent note :^

' Dr. Parker, on the Pre-existence of Souls. " John, v., 8.

' Anima uhi vult spiral, id est, qua vult, animat corpora, et

vocem ejus audit, nempe hominem loquentem, equum hiunientem,

1 72 THE TRUE EELIGION.

" The Soul animates the body as it pleases God, and we
hear its voice in man speaking, in horses neighing, (and
in other creatures by their different cries and noises)
by which we are assured they live ; but whence it pro-
ceeds and is propagated, how it informs the body, whi-
ther it goes, in what it ends, or how it vanishes and
deserts the body, we are whoUy ignorant of." To which
let me add what is most certain, even from the light of
nature — Animorum nulla in terris origo inveniri potest —
nee invenietur unde ad hominem venire possint, nisi a
Deo.'

In the mean time, (not as the Manichees, who held
there was a good and evil principle or soul in every in-
dividual body) it must be acknowledged, that we have
all of us a corruptible, mortal, (and if I may be allowed
80 to speak) a caduce and bodily soul, frail as the
vessel which contains it, as well as that immaterial
principle which we have been describing. For as to
the multiplication of forms, as waiting the same matter,
the objection is solved by the subordination of the one
to the other, so as, whilst one is extinguished, the other
survives as supreme. The sum of all is, that, whilst
the rational soul is not immersed in matter, nor using

&c. : unde scis eos vivere, nescis tamen unde veniat, id est, unde
^gnatur, quomodo corpus ingrediatur, aut quo vadat, in quod de-
sinat, quando egrediatur h. corpore, &c. — Com. in Evang. ad
locum.

' " The origin of the human soul is not discoverable upon earth :
nor shall we find the source whence it could come to man, unless
it be from God."— Cic, Tusc, lib. 1.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 173

any organ, but is altogether conversant with things
supernatural and from another state, there is a sensitive
inferior reason, or passive intellect, which communi-
cates with the first, but is of itself a plain and empty
field, till influenced by a superior principle: that, as
sensible and perceptive only, it has faculties in common
like other animals ; but, as it discourses, abstracts, and
logically distinguishes, has relation to the intellectual
soul. This latter is universally enlightened and com-
prehensive of all that knowledge, of which the other
has no notions, namely, connate principles, concerning
the existence of a Deity — that religion is due to it — that
there is such a thing as conscience, natural justice, &c.,
besides other mathematical truths and peculiar compre-
hensions proper to man only, though his soul cannot
draw geometrical schemes of them, without artificial
aids and institution. It is by one of these man becomes
a living, sensible creature ; by the other a rational, in-
tellectual one; whether of yesterday's creation, pre-
existence, or tradition, is left to men's judgments, but
such a one, as needing no corporeal instrument to exert
her faculties, as the animal life does; but by traducing
that life as a medium uniting them, not as a form with
matter, but by way of accidental essence. Nor is this
co-existence with any mixturous confusion, or change
of substance incompetent to actives and passive, con-
natural and reciprocal ; but as an immaterial substance,
suffers no composition, but remains separate from matter
altogether: indeed, it moves, orders, and directs this
matter, (as we have showed) but is not what it moves

17i THE TRUE EELIGION.

and governs any more, than (to use Plato's expression)
the pilot is the ship or vessel he steers. In a word, she
is the body's essential form, making but one indivisible
Hypostasis, which gives it life, and sense, and motion ;
and, therefore, neither is the Soul in the body, as a fish
is in the water, or a bird in the air, so as not to live and
breathe without it, but being that which only has the
motive power and activity, is certainly superior and
altogether independent to what it moves and acts upon.

To dismiss, then, these difficult researches, either
what the Soul is, or how she descends into the body,
whilst we should rather be solicitous how she goes out
of it, there being more piety required than science in this
dispute — it is sufficiently evident that the human Soul
is a quite different substance from that of any other
living creatures, by prerogatives vastly superior, per-
forming actions worthy the dignity she challenges and
the rank she holds ; for, as one says, we must not think
that the man begins, when he can feed himself and
walk alone, when he can fight and beget his like, (for
so can a camel and a boar) but he is first a man
when he arrives at a certain steady use of reason ; and
to this some are early called, some later, some never,
and they live like goats, and die like asses.

These things concern us infinitely more than the
profoundest speculations of the Soul's essence and all
our past inquiries. Therefore, we cannot but acknow-
ledge how difficult a province he undertakes, who
thinks to seize the royal and towering game, by dog-
matizing and over peremptory assertions ; when, to de-

THE TEUE RELIGION. 1 75

base the pride of mortals, it proves (we see) so hard to
assign any certain and ineluctable demonstration of the
nature of the Soul's production and utmost comprehen-
sions, to that degree as to force assent from Atheists,
and even vicious persons, and such as wUl not give
faith to any thing which contradicts their sensuality.
But to those whose minds are defecate, and exercised
in contemplations worthy the character of reasonable
men, and look after other worlds, there's nothing more
conspicuous and certain than the existence of this im-
material principle, (to which we shall add, because it
comes next to be spoken of) capable of immortality.

176 THE TRUE RELIGION.

CHAPTER III.

SECTION I. THAT THE INTELLECTUAL SOUL IS IMMORTAL.
SECTION II. THAT SHE SHALL RISE AGAIN, AND RE-UNITE WITH

THE BODY.
SECTION ni. A FUTURE STATE, AFTER THIS LIFE.
SECTION rV. AN ACCOUNT TO BE GIVEN OF HER ACTIONS IN IT
SECTION V. FOR A JUST RETRIBUTION.

SECTION I. THAT THE INTELLECTUAL SOUL IS
IMMORTAL.

God dwells only in Himself: the plurality of al
things and beings, therefore, proceeds from Him alone
All essence and super-essence, and if any thing be im-
mortal, it is only by Him who is eternal and immortal
was always what He is, and always shall be.

We have hitherto endeavoured to clear the nature o
a human Soul as a distinct substance from the anima
life, both of mankind and all other his fellow-creatures
by several illustrious prerogatives. There remains ye
one, which, shining above all the rest, entitles him t(
the dignity of yet a more near resemblance to hi
Divine Maker, and that is, his Immortality.

It is observed, in the Mosaic history of the Creation
that brute animals were all made and completed a
once ; whereas, man, being first composed of dust, Goi

THE TRUE RELIGION. 177

(lid afterwards, by, as it were, a second and more solemn
act, breathe into Mm the breath of life, by which he
became a living Soul; by which the wise King dis-
tinguishes him from the brutes,' and that, when the
body and earthly part crumbles into its original matter,
the Soul takes wing, and mounts to the place whence it
also came. And, therefore, have all holy persons re-
commended their spirits to the hands of Him from
whose breath they received it, and from whence they
deduce a proof of its state of immortality. Solomon,
indeed, has a passage, that seems to make her equal
with the souls of beasts ; but does he not, even in the
same book, reverse it all again? Let us hear the
text : —

" I said in mine heart, concerning the estate of the
sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that
they might see that they themselves are beasts: for,
that which befalleth the sons of men, befalleth beasts ;
even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so
dietli the other ; yea, they have all one breath ; so that
a man hath no pre-eminence above a beast : for aU is
vanity : AU go to one place ; aU are of the dust, and all
turn to dust again.^ Wherefore, I perceive that there
is nothing better than that a man should rejoice,"^ &c.
To which we might add from another (though less
authentic) book, imputed to the same Wise King: — •■
" Man is born at aU adventure, and shall be hereafter
as though he had never been: for the breath in his

' Eccles., xii., 7. ' Ibid., iii., 17 — 20.

' Ibid., V. 21. ' Wisd., ii., 2, 3, &c.

VOL. I. N

178 THE TEUE RELIGION.

nostrils is as smoke, and a little spark in the moving of
the heart, which being extinguished, the body shall be
turned into ashes, and the spirit shall vanish in the soft

air, &c Come on, therefore, let us enjoy the

good things that are present .... let us fill ourselves
with wine ; let us crown ourselves with rose-buds : let
none of us go without his part of our voluptuousness :
let us oppress the poor righteous man, nor spare the
widow, nor reverence the aged,"' &c.

Thus much and more we might repeat out of that

rhetorical chapter; than which there is nothing a

plainer contradiction of that impious deduction, which

libertines, and those who would be glad there were

neither God to reward, nor justice to punish, thence

pretend to derive. The truth is, Man being in Jionow

indeed, (as David shows^) namely, the first man, before

the fatal lapse, by it degraded himself of that dignity ;

so that he became Uke the beasts that perish ; not thai

he was thereby really turned into a beast, but extremelj

like one.^ For, whereas before he should not have diec

as beasts, (though, indeed, his body were of the sam*

dissipable principles) but being translated into a mon

happy state, after a long and sweet fruition of th<

animal life below, he was, thenceforth, condemned t(

undergo the same fate of dissolution, as to his body an<

sensitive soul, which he has in common with beasts an(

other animals. The violation of that pact between Go(

and man did subject him to a mortal condition as to hi

» Wisd., 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, " Psalm xlix., 20.

2 Eadem feritatis imago. — Ovid, M. i.

THE TRUE RELIGIOK. 17.')

inferior soul ; but that which he received by the Divine
infusion is incorruptible (naturally speaking) and im-
mortal. But it is not here we are as yet to bring, for
proof, texts out of Scripture,' which abundantly assert
the Soul's immortality, (as will appear upon consulting
the margin) but to show that neither is it repugnant to
nature.

The rational Soul is a self-subsisting being — has no
mixture or corruptible element in its composition. The
Soul is a complete and perfect substance ; no divinity
or philosophy has hitherto made it out, that its being is
relative or incomplete. But, supposing it so, it does
not, therefore, follow that it cannot live in separation,
seeing the very flame of every candle gives light suffi-
cient to this inquiry, which we find can and does sub-
sist or consist, though the matter be extinct: not to
instance in Licetus's lamp, or that said to have been
found in Tullia's sepulchre,'' though, if it wasted any
matter, it would long since have been put out: and if

' Gen. iv., 20 — v., 24— xv., 15 — xlix., 33; S. Matt., x., 28;
S. Luke, xvi., 22 ; 11. Cor., v., 10, 1— xv., 19 ; Phil., ii., 16 ; I. Pet.,
iii., 19.; Rev., iv., 10.

' [The author, in his diary, thus relates the story — " In one of
these monuments, Pancirollus tells us, that in the time of Paul 111.
there was found the body of a lady, swimming in a kind of bath of
precious oil, or liquor, fresh and entire, as if she had been living ;
neither her face discoloured, nor her hair disordered ; at her feet
burnt a lamp, which suddenly expired, at the opening of the
vault ; having flamed, as was computed, 1500 years, by the con-
jecture that she was Tulliola, the daughter of Cicero, whose
body was thus found, and as the inscription testified."] — Evelyn's

n2

180 THE TRUE RELIGION.

it spends no matter, it is all one as if it had none ; for
what need of it, if no use of it? and what use of it, if
no feeding of the flame, but by spending itself. But
the reason why the flame goes out, when the matter is
exhausted, is, for that the minute particles of fire are
soon overcome by the circumstant air, and dissipated
rather than extinct, since it wants matter to keep it in
union and society. But then, as the flame continues
not, with respect to a candle's flame, when the matter
is spent ; yet fire can abide without matter to nourish
it, for itself is doubtless matter and a substance, as well
as motion : and so is the Soul of man. And, as the
element or principle of fire, and the celestial bodies of
fire, eat nothing, but live and subsist of themselves, so
can the Soul, when divested of its relative body, and so
would the flame of a lamp, or candle, could it mount to
the regions of fire, as do the Souls to that of Spirits.

That the Apostle,' preaching to the Athenians, of
the Resurrection, said nothing of the Soul's immor-
tality, was, doubtless, because the one, of consequence,
included the other ,• and, if it had not, yet were there
no need to press that which in the leaxned Academy
was almost universally believed ; I say, universally, and
so convincingly, that Cleombrotus was so satisfied in it
by reading Plato only, that he precipitated himself into
the sea, (for experiment sake) as no longer questioning

Memoirs, vol. i., p. 135. Montfau^on (" L'Antiquite ^xpliquee,"
v., 208) reviews carefully all the evidence in support of lampes
perpetuelles, and condemns this story as fabulous.]
' Acts, xvii., 15, &c.

THE TRUE EELIGION. 181

the truth : and him young Cato followed, and sundry
others, who never would have resisted corporeal plea-
sure and the present fruitions of this life, had the Soul
been corporeal and capable of those pleasures. Never
would there stUl be such hostilities between the rational,
the sensual, and concupiscible appetites.

Indeed, Epicurus and his tribe seem to have other
notions of the human Soul ; but so had not that great
and noble philosopher, Trismegistus, of Egypt, the
Gymnosophists of India, Job, the Chaldaean, and his
friends in the East. It is confessed by Pythagoras,
Socrates, Plato, Thales, Milesius, and even by Aristotle
himself, as the Council of Vienna, under Clement the
Eirst, and the Lateran, under Leo the Tenth, have
determined, asserting that philosopher's opinion. Of
the Latins, we have the incomparable Cicero, besides
the whole Christian school every where : nor ought we
reckon for nothing St. Paul's rapture, who purposely
and with design adds — " whether in the body or out of
the body, I cannot tell;"' plainly intimating, that it
was no ways improbable that this elapse was not ecstatic
and wholly out of the body, and so agreeable to the
nature of the Soul, to operate in separation from it.
Besides, God creating man after his own image, can
have no other meaning than that of his being immor-
tal ; for else, what resemblance to our exterior figure
and that of God, which has no shape ?

Moreover, and as to the Resurrection, (of which anon)
our Saviour proves it by his being God of the living,
' n. Cor., xu., 3,

1 82 THE TRUE RELIGION.

not of the dead.' Nor is, indeed, the death of the Soul
to be defined at all, there being no death of spirits, but
annihilation, none, at least, that we know of or can pos-
sibly understand. For, if ceasing from operation be
death, then it often dies before the body, as it frequently
ceases to exert any of its nobler functions ; as when we
sleep, and neither feel nor understand. If it be rephed
that then it yet animates the body, (a sufficient indica-
tion of life) it is answered, that if one single act be
enough to show the Soul to be alive, then the Soul is
immortal : for, in Philosophy, it is a maxim, that the
Soul desires nothing more than re-union. Now that
which is already dead has no desire. Add to this, that
the Soul can understand without the body ; this is evi-
dent from her acts of reflection, such as, a desire to
desire, a wiU to will, a remembering what she did
remember, &c. So that, (as we said) if one act be suf-
ficient to prove the Soul to be aUve, the state of separa-
tion cannot be a state of death to the Soul, because she
can then desire to be reunited to the body ; and she can
also understand, forasmuch as nothing can hinder her from
performing those actions which depend not upon the body,
in which the operations of the Soul are not organical.

Again, the Soul does not depend upon the body, but
the body on the soul. She gives life to the body, re-
ceives none from it, but rules and governs the body as
she pleases ; and can ratiocinate and act vigorously
when weak and even expiring, when the Soul (as we say)
sits upon the body's very lip, ready to take flight. Be-
' S. Matt., xxii., 32 ; S. Mark, xii., 26.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 183

sides, having no repugnant principles, it is indissipable
otherwise than by a total annihilation ; which we cannot
reasonably think, since we do not find that Almi ghty
God did ever yet put out of being any species which He
ever created ; much less is it likely that He should the
noblest of His creatures.

In a word, God, even with a word, can extinguish
this glorious spark; but that, I say. He ever will,^ is no
where to be gathered; and therefore Grotius doubts
not to affirm, velle Deum ut extinguatur animus, nidlo
potest probari argumento. Wherefore the Soul, as she
actuates the body, is a spiritual essence — as she sur-
vives the body, an immortal. Nor is that prince of phi-
losophers to be otherwise understood, though heedfuUy
attended, where he speaks of its separation from matter ;^
the Soul's conjunction with the body being so incon-
siderable and accidental, in respect of its separation and
eternity. Nor did Aristotle dispute it otherwise than
by way of problem, whilst he names it immortal and
eternal. Indeed, one of them we find who denied there
was any such thing as a Soul at all — Aristoxenus^ was
this prodigy. But so averse were the rest from believ-
ing the Soul could die, that they rather held a transmi-
gration.

Nor is any man so apprehensive of the body's corrup-

' Exod., iii., 6 ; S. Luke,xxiii.,46; Acts, vii., 5, 9; Kev.,vi.,9, 10.

' Aristotle de Gen. An., 1. ii., c. 3 ; lib., iii., c. v.

' [A philosopher and musician, first writer on music (about B.C.
320) : taught that the Soul was merely the harmony of the nerves
and muscles. — Cic. Tusc, 1 ; Lact.de Vit. Beat., c. 13.]

184 THE TEUE KELIGION.

tion and the dispersion of its materials after death, as of
his losing his being, sense, and knowledge, which being
no part of body or matter, but quite of another kiad,
shows that we ourselves imagine strangely of some exist-
ence after life. Our very wondering and admiration at
any great and unusual thing, told, read, or fancied by us,
shows something to be in us of more great and noble ;
and that, however small and iaconsiderable in bulk and
stature, we comprehend such immense and stupendous
magnitudes — ^bringing in all nature — aU we see and aU
we do not see, even the interminable space itself — spirits,
intelligences, and aU we have hitherto enumerated, of
high and abstracted, and that enter not vmder the cri-
terion of our senses — in a word, this Soul of ours raises
herself into the horizon of the intellectual world, ob-
serves the motions, magnitudes, distances, and influxes
of the celestial bodies, visiting and pervading the uni-
versal phenomena. Add to this the inconceivable per-
nicity of thought, passing (as we said) from the centre
of the goodly machine to the sublimest star in a mo-
ment's time, and can penetrate the adamantine doors of
the Empyreal.'

Another argument may be, men's desire of per-
petuating their name, families, and works — continual
thought of the future, and natural apprehension of an-
other state, and of conscience, though under no awe of
human eye or notice (of which more in due place) — that

• TantK celeritatis, ut uno temporis puncto ccElum omne collus-
tret, et, si velit, maria pervolet, terras ac urbes peragret, &c. — Lact.
De Opif. Dei, c. 16.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 185

the Soul is qualified to take cognizance not only of a few
scattered particulars and finite notions, but of the uni-
versal cyclopede, the sublimities of logic, physics, meta-
physics, the acroamatic and profounder mysteries of
philosophy, explicating things by their respective causes.
She apprehends compound and abstracted mathematics,
with all her apodictical canons and speculations, and
from postulata, petitiones, and a long series of premises
and a train of causes, solves theorems, problems, angles,
and intricate figures of geometry — the stupendous
effects of numbers and algebraical supputations — can
form axioms, and comprehend first principles, and is
certain she does do all this, think, and exist, without
the aid of corporeal species. She comprehends what is
truth, what vice, moral and religious things, has a sense
of her own excellency, the amazing notices of eternity
and of God himself. Which all are things unelementary,
incorporeal, and consequently immortal. In sum, no
obscurity of the darkest dark, no profundity of the
deepest abyss, no thickness, height, or depth, time, or
place, obstructs the vast imagination of the human Soul,
which passes, penetrates all things,

et extra

Processit longfe flammantia mcenia mundi. '

We might now proceed to those many stupendous
inventions by words, languages, ciphers, letters, figures,
pictures, hieroglyphics, the daily excogitations of artful

' " Thus did he with his vigorous wit transpierce
The flaming limits of the universe."

Lucretius, book 1, translated by the Author,

186 THE TRUE RELIGION.

productions in printing, shipping, gunpowder, clocks,
mills, machines, and other automata ; edifices, works in
metal, glass, harmonious instruments, and a thousand
other ingenios for use and pleasure — to name only the
political sagacity of institutions in government, laws,
poetry, rhetoric, &c., which, though noble and becoming,
are yet inferior to what we have enumerated. All these,
I say, the rational Soul of man brings and reduces into
an atom ; and all that moves, into that which is of itself
immoveable, and never stirs from her place.

It is, in earnest, a surprising thing to behold a com-
prehension so vast, so obsequious yet to the laws of a
matter so limited ! A being so noble, espoused to the
interests of a frail and wretched body, that has no rela-
tion to her, no proportion to one so narrow and confined !
Wherefore, the difference is no less infinite between-
their natures : for, 2/ the Soul be mortal, she must be
material, which all we have said proves it not to be :
and if composed of atoms, those motions and different
configurations must also produce the noblest and most
exalted thoughts ; and if these particles chance to alter
their course, so must our notions likewise. And thus,
all false principles become false and erroneous rules,
misleading us in all the researches we have so indus-
triously made, not only of a Deity, but of aU things else
in nature whatsoever ; so as two and two would no more
be four ; all would be uncertain, absurd, and extrava-
gant : so necessary it is well to establish the immortality
of our Soul and her prerogative, by all possible instances,
and as we have, by irrefragable and undeniable ones.

THE TRUE EELIGIOX. 187

As to the text ' we named, wherein the fate of animals
was made the same, man's indeed resembles that of
brutes, as he gives reins to his brutish appetites, obnox-
ious as he is to the same accidents and events, the same
infirmities and diseases : both descend into the earth,
the common mother : so as, if one were to judge from
the external face of things, and the promiscuous con-
tingencies that happen to beasts and men, only by the
force of our own ratiocination from external appear-
ances, it would be somewhat difiicult to determine what
became of human Souls. But it is evident as the
meridian Sun, that the penitential King (to whom the
libertines, those hardly rational cattle, appeal) speaks
only in the person of impious and wicked men, judging
from such fallacious phenomena, and does not in all that
passage so much as touch the intellectual soul ; which
he reserves to another place, namely, to chapter xii.
And therefore, Theodoras ^ (who rejected this divine
book) foully mistook the matter; for here the wise
king, resuming the person of a religious man, tells us
quite another story, namely, that at death dust shall
return to dust and earth, as it was before, but the spirit
to God, who gave it.' He spake before of our natural
bodies dissoluble into the common principles, the sensi-
ble life vanishing into the same air ; but here of a higher
fiight: "Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth
upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward
to the earth f* than which antipodes are not more opposite.

' Eccles., iii., 17, &c. ^ M. Vitus Theod. Sum. Cap. Vet. Test.
•" Eccles., xii., 7. ■* lb., iii., 21.

188 THE TEUE RELIGION.

As to the text in "Wisdom/ cited also by us, what
more perspicuous than the author speaking in the per-
son of debauched and abandoned epicures, who, set upon
mischief, violence, and injustice, were resolved to take
their fiU. of sensual fruitions, without regard to any
future state ? He tells us that God created man to be
immortal, and made him to be the image of his own
eternity, plainly affirming the spirits of the righteous
are in the hands of God, where no torment shall approach
them.

In the mean time, admitting the rational Soul to be
of a pure, subtile, and ethereal nature — I say, sup-
posing it not totally immaterial — [bodies by human art
and conditure ha-ving been made resist putrefaction
thousands of years, and subsist without a soul, as we
find Egyptian mummies and the like to have done] I can
see no reason why a Soul, separated from the body,
may not by divine art be preserved, freed as it is from
the more gross and corruptible elements ; the same infi-
nite power being able to render it as indissoluble and
immortal as the more immaterial spirit, and as He cer-
tainly will do at the resurrection.

But there are so many cogent arguments to convince
men that, when all is said, there is no place left for a
considering person to doubt of the Soul's both present
and future existence, even from arguments rationally
deduced; seeing that which is destitute of bulk and
quantity, and to which no necessary is deficient, must
needs be imperishable ; because it has not the power of
^ Wisd., ii., 3.

THE TEUE RELIGION. 189

past existence ; nor can that be destroyed or corrupted,
which, being insectile, has nothing to divide or oppose it.
It is separate from all extensible matter and motion
from another, and is therefore a self-mover, invulnerable,
impassible, immortal; an act, not a virtue or power
only ; and, being an act, is incomposed, and, could she
die, would be annihilated, and something become no-
thing, and nothing something, by some natural power :
whereas, nature teaches that whatsoever enjoys its own
existence, will remain so till a greater force expel it.
And the Soul, thus indivisible, excluding all parts of
quantity, no rarefaction or condensation, alteration of
temperament, heat, cold, fire, or water ; nor tyranny, of
whatever quality, or power less than His who made her
can dissolve her.

Moreover, as we showed, such a substance as performs
its operations without the body, subsists without it ; and
so does the Soul, as oft as it is in real extacy and rapts,
and she conceives things abstracted and universal, so
that she needs no other proof for immortality.

The essence of things is defined by their operations,
and the understanding and the will take place here :
were that a perishable or material thing, perishable,
sensible, and material things would improve them,
which we find they do not. Material faculties lose
their energy by the vehemence of their objects, while
the Soul grows more vigorous and enlarged by contem-
plation, acting and re-acting beyond all organic power.

AU material operations are, as we have showed, con-
fined, so as our sensitive faculties can rise no higher

190 THE TEUE EELIGION.

than the spring of matter : but so can the Soul, not
only understanding and receiving all corporeal sub-
stances, which corporeal faculties cannot do (for the
organ must be clear and colourless to receive coloured
objects); but comprehends spiritual things, and sees
within the veil. Whence it is evident that, as princi-
ples are in themselves incorruptible, so is the Soul ; and
that what is essentially life to others does never die or
grow old ; for, whilst corporeal things impair with time,
our intellectuals improve.

It is, therefore, a noble and highly necessary belief,
that the human Soul is immortal. Could we else ima-
gine that Curtius, Regulus, and those other heroic per-
sons, even amongst the Pagans, would so generously
have hazarded and cast away their lives for their coun-
try, parents, friends, had they not some glimmerings
and hopes of immortality, and not altogether for glory,
and empty fame, which they know in time would vanish?
But, as it was the universal voice of all nations, it was
doubtless also implanted in them by Nature herself.
Thus, to the sense of Solomon :

nvevfia fiev Trpos aWtpa,
TO {ratfia fi'eis yrjv^

It shall go from whence it came, earth to earth, ashes
to ashes, the Soul to Heaven.

■' We might fill a first volume out of the writings of
those famous men on this immortal subject. And he
that shall turn over Cicero and Seneca alone ^ may be

' Eurip. Supp., v., 533.

' Cicero inCato Maj., de Somn. Scip. Seneca passim.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 191

stored with variety of suffrages to make our modern
atheists blush. That the Soul returns to Heaven,
whence she descended, was the firm persuasion of that
excellent heathen, and another honest stoic,' " Death is
not an evil ; it is the nativity of eternity ; we are all
allied to God, from whom we came, and to whom again
we go,. let us once shake off the pressures which bear
us down." And what if I should extort as much out of
a professed epicure himself:

Denique caelesti sumus semine oriundi;
Omnibus ille idem pater est.*

Thus, too, Manilius,^ to the same effect : —

An dubium est habitare Deum sub pectore nostro,
In cselumque redire animas, cffiloque venire ?

Whence Seneca doubts not to call the Soul a God ;'
so as Livy tells us the Romans consecrated a temple in
the Capitol, by the name of Mentis ^des : and, though
she be no God, she is His image, and that image im-
ported not so much His exterior figure as His immortal
nature. To this purpose, Plutarch,* citing a verse from
Pindar, doubts not to bring the Soul's descent from

' Epictetus.

' " Lastly, we all from seed celestial rise,
Which Heaven, our common parent, still supplies."

Lucretius, lib. ii^ 990.
' Lib. iv., 886. See Virg., Georg., lib. ii. 325.
* Sen. Ep., 120.

I" " Our bodies shrink to dust by death's decree ;
The Soul survives, and fills eternity."

Dryden's Plutarch, Life of Rom.

192 THE TRUE RELIGION.

God, and that she returns to Him again, after separa-
tion and purification from the earthly dross which hin-
ders her ascent. Whence that of Heraclitus, anima
sicca sapientior,^ dry things being less clogged and more
disposed to take wing. So fixed was this good man in
the belief of the Soul's survivance, that he thinks the
spirits of virtuous and religious men are not only trans-
mitted out of brave and worthy persons into heroes,
but, passing through those demi-gods, become deified,
and even Gods themselves.

But, to render this notion safe and accommodate:
though the human Soul be said not only by these ex-
traordinary enlightened Heathen, but by the Sacred
Oracle itself, to participate of the Divine natiu-e, it is
not to be understood of the communication of the
Divine substance, but for similitude of properties and
Divine gifts ; which, though resembling, are yet but
faint shadows and umbrations of that sublime nature ;
and so, verily, good and excellent men are rather the
offspring and sons of God, nay, one spirit with Him ;
not, I say again, by essential propagation, but a certain
virtual inhabitation. ^

And, if tliis be not sufficient, turn over Plato, In his
Phoedo, introducing Socrates dialogizing with his friends,
a little before he drank the fatal bane — than which there
is nothing more to be wished to assert this article, even
from the voice of a mere natural man, and to demon-

' ["A dry soul is the wisest" — quoted by Plutarch, (jrepi (rapKo<j>.)
in a similar sense.]

' S. John, i. 13— viii., 17; I. Cor., yii., 17, &c.; H. Pet, i., 13.

THE TKUE EELIGION. 193

strate that lie is not a mere piece of organized matter,
or prettily contrived puppet only, but a vessel contain-
ing a sublime and immortal substance. Thus, though
with Tertullian^ we find, indeed, that the Soul's exist-
ence after death is not to be learned from the schools of
philosophers, but from God Himself; yet the light
which these men had was consonant to the truth, and
haply at first derived from the holy prophets them-
selves ; so generally they spoke their sense. And, as
we affirmed, even Aristotle himself^ (whatever some
pretend) where he distinguishes of the vegetable, sensi-
tive, and intellectual Soul, acknowledges the last, not
only not to proceed from matter, (or using any organ)
but to be plainly divine, that the agent intellectual is
separate from matter, and immortal:' and the ques-
tion he makes in that first of Morals to Nicomachus,
Whether the dead have any perception, sense, or con-
cern for their surviving friends, he concludes with the
affirmative, which could not be, unless their souls were
in being. In good earnest, so poorly is man gratified
with sensual objects, that the whole world is not large
enough to satisfy so much as one poor sense, the eye,
single as it is, and but an organ of the body only ; and,
if whilst in the body we cannot attain what we long
after, we shall certainly out of the body ; since God has
given no inclination to His creatures but what is pro-
fitable and necessary : and, therefore, shall either now

' De Anim., c. 4.

De Gen. An., c. 3, and De Anim., 1. 8, c. 5.
' Mctaphys., 1. 12, c. 3.
VOL. I. O

194 THE TRUE RELIGION.

or hereafter be satisfied: otherwise, they should be
made in vain.

Now, there is nothing the Soul of man so much de-
sires as immortality, and a future happy existence.
Besides, it is natural for us to believe and hope it, and
hardly possible for us to think or believe that a time
will come, when we shall cease to be. What, there-
fore, is natural, is certainly true ; for, were immortality
supernatural, we could have no comprehension or notion
of it, nor fancy what it were ; which yet we can and do
easily conceive. These impressions were not given to
abuse mankind, seeing God created all His works in
perfection, and made not that to be mortal, which he
has capacitated to become immortal ; or given him such
impetuous desires, noble ideas, and an industrious pur-
suit of virtue, in hopes of attaining felicity without
effect.

We have already spoken of his secret desire of per-
petuating his being and succession, his insatiable thirst
after fame and glory, his ambition of leaving some per-
manent memorial behind him, &c; and that not so
much to satisfy others, as out of a secret hope and ima-
gination at least, that the good he does here will turn
to his account hereafter ; not forgetting the inexpres-
sible dread of wicked and profligate men, in affliction,
and their last agonies, betraying their apprehensions
and fears of a future state, in spite of all their hectoring
it in prosperity. So wretched a thing it is, so to have
lived, as to have no refuge from anxiety and torment,
but annihilation. It was, therefore, the brave conside-

THE TRUE RELIGION. 195

ration of Cyrus in Xenophon, and of Cicero and So-
crates, the nobler Greeks and Romans, to wish that
their souls might survive, and the best and wisest of
them believed it too.'

So confident were the very Heathen world, and yet
is, of a being after this life, that it is reported of the
Chinese, and those of Japan, that they give letters of
credence and exchange, and make provision for their
friends and relations in the other world. What was
else the meaning of their funebral pomps, their killing
slaves and cattle, nay, the combustion of the Indian
wives at the funeral-pile of their deceased husbands, and
the burying of so much treasure with them ? But of
tliis we shall have further occasion to enlarge, when we
come to show that, as this principle and soul of man
survives the body, so is she in expectation of a due re-
ward and a just remuneration in another state ; wherein
since the body as well as the soul shall both participate,
having both been assisting to each other whilst united,
that body shall likewise be joined to it again, never
more to separate, after a miraculous Ee^urrection.

' Si in hoc erro, quod animos hominum immortales esse cre-
dam, libenter erro : nee milii hunc errorem, quo delector, duin
vivo, extorqueri volo ; sin mortuus, ut quidam minuti philosophi
censent, nihil sentiam ; non vereor ne hunc errorem meum mortui
philosophi derideant. (Cic. Cato Maj.) "KI err in believing the
souls of men to be immortal, I err gladly : nor do I wish this
pleasing delusion to be rooted out, vfhile I live ; and if, when
dead, I lose all feeling, as certain petty philosophers determine, I
have no fear that after death they will laugh at my mistake."

196 THE TRUE RELIGION.

SECTION II. EESUREECTION.

But, indeed, the belief and demonstration of this
was so incredible and new a doctrine to the wisest of
Heathens, that when the great apostle of the Gentiles
began but to mention it among the learned Athenians,'
some mocked, what will this babbler sayf others, more
curious, desired to hear it again, taking it for some
strange and unheard-of God ; whilst his business was to
let them understand that the God, whom they did not
know, and yet erected an altar to, commanded all men
every where to repent, after his so long connivance at
their ignorance and superstition; forasmuch. He had
appointed a day in which He would judge the world in
righteousness.

And where, indeed, is the difficulty to those who
subject all things to the omnipotence of God, and that
are daily spectators of so many strange things in nature,
not only illustrating, but some of them even demon-
strating, the possibility of the Resurrection ? The day
succeeds the night, in which it is, as it were, dead : and
the sun sets as buried under the earth, and rises in the
morning ; we sleep and die in the nearest representation
of death, and awake in a resuscitation, every time we
take our natural repose ; and though our bodies be not
then dissolved, a thousand less corruptible are that die,
and are buried, and re-flourish again after a tedious
period ; during which the hardest seeds corrupt and arc
turned to mucilage and rottenness, mortified with frosts
' Acts, xvii.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 197

and covered with snow as with a winding-sheet — yet
rise again, in the spring, from squalor and putrefaction,
a solid substance — from dissolution of parts and sad de-
formity, to such vigour, beauty, and perfection, as even
Solomon in all his glory was not clad Uke a lily of the
common field.

This St. Paul held so convincing an argument, as he
fears not to call him fool that seemed but to question it.
For, from what inglorious and dirty rudiments do those
daily miracles of the parterre result, whilst divers of
their principles are so invisible, for a time, at least, that
they seem utterly to be lost ! Thus, the com which
feeds our bodies, and whose paste, or dough, of all
things, most resembles our flesh, revives and multiplies ;
and he who sows, sows in hope ; and after many a nip-
ping frost and severe winter, it springs afresh. But
that which was sowed is not quickened, except it first
die ; ' nor is it the body it shall be : but bare grain,
sown in corruption, raised in incorruption ; and so shall
our bodies be sown in dishonour, raised in glory ; sown
in weakness, raised in power; sown a natural body,
raised a spiritual. For this corruptible must put on
incorruption, and this mortal immortaHty, and death
itself be swallowed up in victory.

Consult we nature again, and we find several birds
and beasts and innumerable insects pass, not only vulgar
changes, but the silkworm, whose death, tomb, and
resurrection, are plainly stupendous. And if thus in
the works of nature, why should we doubt but the
' I. Cor., XV., 36, 38, &c.

198 THE TRUE RELIGION.

God of nature, who framed us out of nothing, should
even from nothing restore and make us something? It
beiiig so much the more difficult to give that a new
being which had none, than to bring it into a second
being, which has matter prepared for it before.

It is a known maxim in philosophy, and of unques-
tionable event, that the corruption of one thing is the
generation of another. And can we believe that man,
who is lord of all God's creatures, should expire and
perish, and produce nothing but worms and silly ver-
min ? Is it probable, or, indeed, imaginable, that God
should thus restore all things to men, and not man to
himself? Were there no other consideration but that
of the principles of human nature, of the liberty and
remunerations of human actions, and of the mutual
revolutions and resuscitations of other creatures, it were
abundantly sufficient to render the resurrection of the
body almost demonstrable. Besides, howsoever the
body's outward frame fall in pieces and to dust, the
principles remain in the element ; and, though our dis-
solved particles be scattered and hid from us, as to the
places where they lie neglected. He who made them
knows where to find them, and where to collect every
individual atom, and how to re-unite them, not only in
the same, but in a much more beautiful form. The
matter, I say, remaining, is stiU as capable of resuming
the pristine specific form and shape.

Nor is it yet a new-created body, but the same that
dies,' the same that worshipped God, that died and
' Job, xix., 25, 26.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 199

suffered for him. And why should not the same soul
resume the same body, and not a brute's, as the Druids
and Pythagoreans held? Since, otherwise, it were no
resurrection, but a renovation, or recreation, rather,
and be such as never was before, and so not rewardable,
with justice, for merit, or punished for crimes.' The
same numerical person shall, therefore, rise the same in
identity, seeing, properly, nothing dies, or is raised, but
the body ; for the Soul never dies, or is buried ; and all
who were raised by Christ on earth, rose in the same
body. But the change to be made shaU not be alto-
gether of this nature and substance only, but of the
same condition and quality.

We behold how chymists resuscitate the forms of
things, to all appearance, out of real corruption and
confused chaos : what more wonderful than the process
on crude mercury ? now fixed, then volatile ; now quite
altered, anon reduced again through a thousand meta-
morphoses and changes. Things visible are made in-
visible, and visible again by the art of fermentation,
circulation, putrefaction, cribration, and even recinera-
tion, raised from dust and ashes, defecated of their
former dross. Does man go thus far by his skill in
pyrotechny, and shall not God do more, who is the
Cosmotect ?

Now, in what body St. Paul above has taught us,
and St. Augustine,^ that we shall rise in a flourishing
and mature age ; not only men, but little infants, even

' See Tertull. Apol., c. 42.
' De Civ. Dei, lib. iv., c. 14, 15.

200 THE TEUE RELIGION.

to the stature that Christ, our Head, attained, and that
in substance, not deformity; forasmuch as infancy is
imperfection, age, corruption.' Wherefore, the body
shall be a glorious body, endued with all spiritual qua-
lities of illumination, agility, and aptitude to ascend and
pass regions of infinite distance and variety ; and that
lis well women as men. Those who first published our
Lord's resurrection, shall doubtless also partake of it.^
Verily, were it not for this hope and assurance, how
disconsolable would be the loss of friends and relations !
This comforts us in afflictions, encourages in sufier-
ings, incites to glorious actions, and even to die for
our country and the public good. If the opinion of a
metempsychosis, or empty fame, which is but the breath of
ambitious man, engage him to so many brave and heroic
exploits, what should not these glorious considerations !

Felices errore suo, quos ille timorum
Maxiraus, baud urget lethi metus ; inde ruendi
In ferrum mens prona viris, animseque capaces
Mortis, et ignavum est rediturae parcere vitae.'

' De Civ. Dei, lib. xxii., c. 13, &c.

^ " Et qui utrumque sexum instituit, utrumque restituet." (S. Aug.
De Civ. Dei, lib. xxiii., c. 17.) — " He who appointed both sexes
shall restore both.''

' " Thrice happy they beneath their northern skies,
Who that worst fear, the fear of death, despise ;
Hence they no cares for this frail being feel.
But rush undaunted on the pointed steel ;
Provoke approaching fate, and bravely scorn
To spare that life, which must so soon return."

Rowe's Lucan.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 201

Tn a word, if God be Almighty, as He certainly is,
and knows what is to be done, as he also does, and has
power and skill to do as He pleases — to Him nothing is
impossible. He who knows every atom, every single
dust, tomb, and grave, and looks into the darkest
abysses and the most secret receptacles, where men are
sleeping in their dissolved causes, can fetch and sum-
mon every minute particle, and join them together as
before, and give them new life, and raise them up ; and
the man who once was dust, become man again ; seeing
whatever we lose in death is not lost to God: and,
though our parts be dissolved, yet they perish not, but
are rcposited, and in safe hands.

Let us examine history and matter of fact. We have
the resurrection of One, who had no less than five hun-
dred testimonies of it. Christ, the first fruits and head,
being raised,' needs must the members follow. The
holy Apostles touched his body, heard him speak, saw
him eat, nay, conversed with him, not for a day or two,
but during the space of forty, and then beheld him
ascend above the clouds. And, though Felix accounted
iSt. Paul a madman for affirming it, the evidence was so
full and undeniable, that it obtained credit, and pre-
vailed in spite of all contradiction, not of credulous and
easy men, but of the most learned, sober, and inquisitive
persons in the world, and such as joined the most
maliciously to detect the imposture, had there been the
least prevarication in it. Therefore, to disbelieve this

' I. Cor., XV., 6.

202 THE TRUE EELIGION.

truth Is not to discredit Scripture ^ only, but all good
history, ancient and undoubted records of the most
concurrent and disinterested testimony that ever was,
as in due place we shall come to prove.

In the mean time, we find holy Job ^ so early of this
faith, and so peremptorily asserting it, as that St. Jerome
tells us, no man ever since our Saviour's real resurrec-
tion could speak more expressly concerning it. It is
doubtless, if not altogether, the most ancient record ex-
tant in the world. Nor sooner hear we of the death
and dissolution of mankind, but we have news of his
reviving, and this by a Gentile, too, to show that they,
as well as the Jews, were to enjoy the fruit and benefit
of it.

But though Plluy, indeed, and some philosophers,
esteemed it imjjosslble even for God Himself to raise
the dead, the same they held of a Creation ex nihilo.
And, I know, Socinus, the Quakers, and some other
sectaries and fanatics, have applied those words of Job
to a temporal restitution of health and reparation of his
losses: but the interpretation is forced, wrested, and
plainly absurd, and contrary to the whole stream of
ancient church, the clear sense of the sacred text, and
the title he has given of a Redeemer, which shows he
understood it of none but Christ. That it was revealed,
likewise, under the Law, we learn the Sadducees to
have erred, because they knew not the Scriptures, nor

^ Exod., vi., 4 ; Psalm xc, 3 ; Isaiah, xxvi., 19 ; Dan., xii., 2 ;
Matt., xxii., 31.
* Job., xix., 25.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 203

the power of God, whilst the Pharisees maintained
both ; that is, the being of separate spirits, and belief
of the Resurrection. Hence that extreme care and so-
licitude, and cost of embalming, and funebral rights, as
well among Pagans as Jews, having respect to a future
state after this life.'

SECTION III. A PUTUKE STATE, AETER THIS LIEE.

We read not of any so barbarous and ignorant, but
who had, at one time or other, notions of good and evil,
felicity and misery, reward and punishment, according
to demerits ; for such there were ever amongst the most
savage of the New World, who never (that we can teU)
had any traffic or commerce with the Old ; and who-
ever has but a suspicion of this, does consequently fear
or virtually acknowledge a supreme justice. But of
tliis hereafter.

The natural appetite which all men have to know-
ledge, and the complacency we take in contemplation,
the restless and never satisfied eye and heart, with
riches, possessions, beauty, honour, learning, power, and
whatever else this world is able to afford, whilst all
other creatures are contented with food and natural
thino-s, tell us aloud, that there is something still behind
the curtain of more perfect and consummate wanting,
to fiU our capacities and complete our happiness. I
say, besides the sentences of wise men and divines, our
natural sentiments of eternity and another state, our
immense desires of lasting fame and of leaving some-
' TertuU. Apol., c. 42.

204 THE TRUE RELIGION.

tiling of memorable behind us, and, above all, the
remorse, the harrowings and strokes of conscience, oi
approbation and satisfaction, upon the doing of worthy
or wicked actions, accusing or excusing, according tc
the obliquity or rectitude : and that which we appre-
hend and would reconcile, when in imminent peril and
near dissolution, not to be bribed or any ways pacified
with all the delights and charms of this world, not tc
be put off by the most potent monarch — are all of them
demonstrations of a future state. Besides, all things
here are in continual flux and vicissitude, nothing per-
manent ; no prince, no private person, nor state of life,
assured one moment. It must be, therefore, some-
Avhere, and the perfection not of a single endowment
only, but of our entire nature, which can make us
happy, and which, not to be found in this, must in
another state.

If there be anything desirable beyond this life, and
what this world affords, as we all confess and find there
is, it is certain it exists and is in being somewhere ;
seeing God has created no appetite but what He
has provided something adequate to satisfy and fill,
Had any mortal man been the first inventor of the
opinion that there was another state of things, and s
life to succeed this, he would most undoubtedly have
been named, and assumed it to himself that he was sc
owned, and gloried in it ; so that it is impossible so vasi
a sect should have no known master among men. Thii
makes it certain, then, that it came from none but God
and could be no otherwise derived than from Heaven

THE TKUE RELIGION. 20.J

What can be the reason of the universality of this be-
lief, but our fears and doubtings, or rather our un-
doubted apprehension of a being, when all our actions
shall be scanned, approved, or condemned ? Was there
nothing to remain after this umbratile life, why are
men, above all other creatures, so solicitous for nothing ?
Whence proceeded the notion so early, so generally?
Why all this dispute among both learned and unlearned,
barbarous and civil? And why, in our most decrepit
age, is the Soul most vivid and quick, and most greedy
of knowledge, and less and less satisfied with material
sj^eculations.

The truth is, without this there could be no living in
the world, no government, no society. Paradise and
Hell, reward and punishment, as the Rabbles wisely
say, are the two pillars that support and bear up the
world ; and God Almighty saw it, and not the politics
of men, as Atheists would make us believe.'

Hence the adoration of departed heroes and apothe-
oses among the ancients, believing them to survive their
body ; hence their reports of the Elysian Fields and
Infernal Shades, of Minos and Rhadamanthus, Furies
and hellish companions, and all that they have spoken
of retributions, which both philosophers and poets either
believed or feared. They tell us of the Stygian Lake,

' Non leve momentum apud nos habet consensus omnium, aut
timentium inferos, aut colentium. (Seneca, Epist. 17.) "The uni-
versal consent of mankind has with me no little weight, whether
it be of those who fear, or those who fondly dwell upon a future
state."

206 THE TRUE RELIGION.

dark and gloomy recesses, of Ixion wheels, tantalizing
and horrible torments, and vultures feeding on the Hver,
intimating the restless stings of conscience; -ZEtnas,
Vesuviuses, Heclas, and other volcanoes, and perennial
burnings, showing the possibility of eternal fire — a true
and real fire,' whose smoke ascends for ever — the never-
dying worm, anguish of mind — the killing thought of
eternity and despair. Oh, inexpressible misery! no
release till the last mite be paid, which can never be ;
there being no repentance wrought in those flames, no
purgation of sin, no sanctification of nature, no justifica-
tion of person, and, therefore, no salvation, without the
mediation of a Saviour, who wiU then have given up
and resigned that ofl5ce ; and so no remedy for ever.^

The Socinians, indeed, pretend, and would fain have,
that the eternal death, threatened in Scripture, signifies
annihilation only, but know not how to avoid that ex-
pression of everlasting fire.^ The Jews believed a second
death; though more obscurely then intimated than
afterwards. The weeping, wailing, and gnasliing of
teeth, was by our Blessed Saviour frequently spoken of
to them upon several occasions ; as also the Apostles of
our Lord, of a mist of darkness, by St. Basil termed, an
obscure fire, tormenting and heating, without the least

' Isai., xxxiv., 10.
"Nulla major et pejor est mors, quam ubi non moritur mors.
(S. Aug.De Civ. Dei, 1. vi., c. 12) — "No death is so terrible, as
that state where death never dies."

•• S. Matt., xviii., 8— iii., 15; Deut., xiii., 5; Isai., xxii., 14 —
Ixv., 6.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 207

cheerful liglit. And this did the Heathen call Tartarus,
(so ^Vnacreon, the debauched poet, fearing to die, lest he
should be condemned to it) for they feigned the place a
dismal, uncomfortable den, in the bowels of the earth, and
called it the Abyss, the Infernal Lahe,^ Hades, (which
Plutarch says is a dark pit) and so SheoVs^ name also men-
tioned in Scripture, and the Lake, a fiery gulf,' whither,
likewise, the devils were sent. The valley of Hinnon
was a type of hell, for the cruelty of the idolatrous
Jews offering their children and human sacrifices to
Saturn; it was a deep bottom, where they flung all
their carrion, as described by the Prophets:' enough
and sufficient to prove, that they all believed a state
after this life, and that there is an account to be given
of our actions.

SECTION IV. THERE IS AN ACCOUNT TO BE GIVEN

OF OUR ACTIONS.

But, because sentence is not immediately executed

against evil men, therefore, their hearts are fully set

and bent to do wickedly ; they wonder that some ghosts

' Job., XX vi., 6 ; Isaiah, v. 14 — xiv., 9.

^ \Sheol^ a Hebrew word, signifies " The Invisible state of the
Dead," in general. (Dr. Parkhurst's Heh. Lex.) The seventy
translate it by afijjs, (Hades) which, Dr. Campbell thinks, should
never be rendered Hell in the New Testament, as it is now under-
stood ; though in its primitive signification it answers to Sheol. —
See Dr. Camp., Prel. Diss., vi., p. 82.]

' S. Matt., viii., 29 ; II. Pet., ii., 4.

* Isai., XXX., 33; Matt, iv., 1 ; Matt, xiii., 50; Luke, xvi., 24;
Rev., XX., 10.

208 THE TRUE EELIGION.

are not sent from the other world, to give them warn-
ing and assurance of the being of such a place ; and
men would prescribe to the Great Arbiter of things
what we fancy and would have. He must humour
every one's curiosity, not his reason only : we will have
our senses satisfied ; and, though that were insupport-
able to flesh and blood, should they be taken at their
word, they call for they know not what, and wUl only
trust their own eyes before the God who made them !
We see not, indeed, these things, yet plainly perceive
them; and innumerable most powerful operations are
there, even in God's creatures, which, to our senses, are
invisible as the wind : and the sun itself, which makes
all visible, does almost put out our eyes with its lustre,
nor can we perceive our own souls, the only nearest and
most considerable portion of us ! What thanks, or re-
ward, then, can those pretend for their faith and virtue,
who will credit nothing save what they see and touch ?
What exercise of worth or goodness, when those who
were every day witnesses of so many wonders and real
miracles did not profit by them? We also daily be-
hold them in the continued economy of nature, yet
slight and pass them by ; so that, should one rise from
the dead, some would yet not believe.

If the excellent things proposed and expected, and
the punishments of the other state to those who do well
and ill, were not incitements to govern ourselves ac-
cordingly, what were the merits of faith, justice, charity,
patience, and other virtues ? Had goodness and virtue
no other remuneration but itself, (which the philoso-

THE TRUE EELIGIOK. 209

phers hold sufficient) they must often act against their
present interest, and what can that felicity be ? And,
therefore, virtue is not that happiness, but the way
leading to it. Nature prompts to acts of virtue, and to
preserve herself, but always on account of retribution ;
and God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him ;
there being no sign of universal justice in this world :
and if there be such a thing as justice and goodness in
the Divine nature, (as there certainly is) then must
there be a reward for those who obey Him, and a
punishment for those who do otherwise. The distribu-
tion is somewhere and at some time ; for either there is
a Judge of our actions, or there is none ; and in case
there be, He must be just ; and then there is a trial to
be expected, there being here no equal distribution at
present, where for the most part wicked and ungodly
men prosper. For man, being a free agent, capable of
doing good, or evil, and consequently obnoxious to re-
ward or punishment, and capable of another state in
which to receive it; seeing, also, that in this life, not
only good men pass unrewarded ; and that some, again,
are so notoriously wicked, as no punishment here is
sufficient to chastise and reform them, such as pirates
and sea-robbers, who cast so many innocents overboard,
and spoil the labours of honest men; murderers, and
persecutors, and haughty tyrants, that make invasions
on their quiet neighbours, and begin unjust wars ; that
pursue men with malice, secret backbitings, and use
devilish arts, perjury, and stick at no wickedness to
compass their ends ; and that many such are placed out
VOL. I. p

210 THE TRUE RELIGION.

of the reach of common justice, such as those mighty-
ones, whose ambition and pride, lust and avarice, de-
stroy whole nations, churches, and whatsoever is sacred.
I say, seeing justice is so unequally distributed amongst
these wicked men here, there must, of congruity and
natural necessity, be a future calling to account. For
Almi ghty God, being also a free agent, is not obliged to
exercise either punishment or reward, seeing that would
make Him a necessary agent; but as He has decreed
and declared Himself, not in His Word only, but in
the opinions and confessions of all rational creatures.
Heathen, and others, who knew not the Scripture.
And, though God might make this appear by examples
in this life. He is pleased awhile to suspend it, having
given mankind sufficient reason to guide himself by.

The discrimination here (all things happening alike
to all) is very invisible as to good and evil events;
which still renders it most agreeable to reason and
justice, that there wUl be an after-reckoning; seeing
the greatest punishment and most consmnmate happi-
ness is neither sufficient to deter men from vice, nor to
render good and righteous men perfectly happy and
completely satisfied. All is here perpetually changing ;
nor prince, nor private person, nor state of life, afford
one moment's repose. It must, therefore, be the per-
fection not of any single endowment, but of our entire
nature, which can render us happy ; and that is not to
be hoped for in this life.

' Jews, Pagans, Christians, believing that aU things
which had beginning should have a period, expected an

THE TRUE RELIGION. 21 1

universal conflagration ; the stoics, and divers philoso-
phers, were of that faith — Plato, Aristotle, Diogenes,
Laertius — that He who made the world was able to un-
make and destroy it again. So the Poet :

" Unit dies dabit exitio, multosque per annos
Sustentata met moles et machina mundi." '

And all this generally by fire, as may abundantly ap-
pear by the writings of Seneca,^ Cicero, Pliny, Ovid,
Lucan, the Sybils, from some tradition, most likely
from the people of God. They held a general assizes,
to which aU should be summoned, and had serious ap-
prehensions both of the power of natural conscience and
exactness of Divine justice; whence it follows that
there was to be a, just retribution.

SECTION V. JUST EETRIBUTION.
At this Felix trembled, on S. Paul preaching of right-
eousness, temperance, and judgment to come,' and that
by reason of things of which he was notoriously guilty ;
which, being himself a Heathen, he would never have had
any sense of, had he not both believed and feared the
consequence. Wherefore, though the Athenian Phi-
losophers derided the Apostle's doctrine concerning the
' " One fatal hour must ruin all :
This glorious frame, that stood so long, must fall:"

Creech—- Lucret., 1. v., 96.
^ Seneca, Ep. 71; Nat. Qusest., 1. iii., c. 28; Lucan, Phars.,
lib. i., V. 73 ; Ovid, Met. xv.
' Acts, xxiv., 2.5,

p2

212 THE TKUE RELIGION.

Kesurrectlon, they did not in the least contradict his
denouncing a judgment to evil-doers, and the telling
them there was a day in which God would judge the
world/ because it was a principle of their own before,
and so rational a one to those who had a notion of God.
Wherefore, Justin Martyr^ speaks of this as their uni-
versal creed, and so does TertuUian, &c., from their
frequent expressions to that effect, upon occasion of
any wrong or injury. =• But Plato surpasses them all,
as cited largely by Eusebius* and Theodoret.^ And
the barbarous islanders concluded that vengeance had
seized on S. Paid's hand, as thinking him some faci-
norous person, though he had escaped the shipwreck.

Were there not some dreadful expectation to come.
Death would not be the King of Terrors : for it is the
fear of dying after death which creates this fear. This
it was that caused the wise Socrates to acknowledge
that nothing would be so frightful to him as death, were
he not assured of going to a great and wise God, from
whom he expected to be transformed into some daimon,
or god-like spirit, and speaks as divinely of the seclu-
sion of profane and impious wretches^ from future hap-
piness, as any Christian can do. Nor only Socrates,

' Acts, xvii., 31. ^ Apology.

' Deus videt, Deus reddet, &c.

* Euseb. Prsep. Evang., 1. xi., c. 38 — 1. xxii., c. 6.

' Serm. de fin. et Jud. : oti as axpi^Sis iniarfvev 6 IlXaruv els
TO €v aSou KpiTTipwv. — " Plato belicved firmly in a judgment to
come."

" Plato's Cratylus and Theeetetus.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 213

but Socratic Cicero, Plutarch, and others, more than
obscurely hinting at a notion of a right and left hand.
And, indeed, the common proportion and usages in this
world suggest some remuneration to men as they de-
serve; however, they too often miss of it, through the
iniquity and injustice of men.

They did (as the patriarchs of old) confess that they
were but strangers and pilgrims belonging to another
country ;' for to this sense do both Trismegistus and
Pythagoras, Jamblicus, the Greek satirists and poets,
universally give suffrage more than once ; it being, as
we said, the catholic belief of the wiser Heathen. The
expressions of Zoroaster are wonderful ; so in the golden
verses of Pythagoras, Epicharmus, &c. Let us hear
Cicero for all : " Certum esse ac definitum locum in caelo,
ubi heatiwvo sempiterno fruantur."^ What can be plainer?
The translation of Enoch, the rapt of Elias, &c., might
possibly give hints to such as may have heard of these
miracles, or lighted on the Old Testament ;^ even among
the Heathen, many of the curious, both of the Greeks
and Romans, happening upon its translation into the
learned tongue by the care and command of Ptolemy.
And as for the Patriarchs, it is evident they did not at
aU reckon upon the transitory enjoyment of this life ;
which is very convincing, both against Papists and
Anabaptists, in their exposition on the creed, &c. ; as if

' Hebr. xi., 13.

^ " There is a sure and fixed place in Heaven, where the blessed
enjoy life everlasting." — Somn. Scip. 3.

' Gen., XV., 1 ; Job., xix., 29; Ps. xxvii., 13.

214 THE TRUE RELIGION.

those holy persons had not some promises in the Old
Testament, and most perspicuous ones in the New;
besides what we find in the Maccabees,^ the mother
encouraging her seven children to undergo their mar-
tyrdom. Let, therefore, these passages be consulted by
the doubtful, and Mr. Thorndike's Epilogue.^

In a word, Grod, who has enjoined a law and duty,
that duty performed and law observed, at the price of
so much suffering and contradiction of evil men, infers
a necessity of a future remuneration, for that which he
suffers or falls short of here : because He, who is the
fountain of justice, will maintain His character: " shall
not the judge of all the earth do right?" Yes, yes;
there will come a time, when all such as are in the
grave shall hear the Judge's voice, and come forth, as
Lazarus did, they that have done good to the resurrec-
tion of life, and they who have committed evil, to the
resurrection of condemnation.^

And, though the heathen had no revelation of this
article, their revolution of souls for animadversion and
punition — their canonization and apotheosis of excellent
and deserving persons — their belief that there was above
a place not subject to alteration, where they lived and

' S. Matt., XXV., 5, 46 ; S. John, iii., 6— xii., 25 ; I. Tim., vi., 14 ;
Titus, iii., 7; II. Cor., v., 1; I. Pet, v. 3, 4 ; II. Tim., iv., 8 ; James,
i., 12 ; Heb., xii., 22, 29 ; 2 Mace, vii.

" Book iii., ch. xxvi., &c. [An Epilogue on the Tragedy of the
Church of England, by Herbert Thorndike. Published in 1659,
and originally sold at the sign of the Bell, St. Paul's Churchyard.]

' John, v., 24, 29.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 215

enjoyed perfect tranquillity — shows what they thought
of hereafter. There were in Varro's time no fewer than
two hundred and eighty eight opinions concerning the
Sovereign Good, both what and where it was. The
Epicureans placed it in sensual pleasure here ; the Stoics,
in morality ; the Peripatetics, in philosophy and know-
ledge of nature, policy, and contemplation ; the Aca-
demics, and Plato, who nearest approached the truth, in
being united to the life of the Deity, abstracted from
earthly and mundane things. And he was certainly in
the right ; for happiness consummate is that which
comes nearest to the fountain of happiness, which is
God.

For this the bodies of holy and just persons, as well
as souls, being spiritualized and made incorruptible,
shall be adapted when once they come into the world
and region of spirits, and that aU our parts and faculties
are raised to their utmost enlargement and capacity ;
our wills perfected with absolute and indefective sanc-
tity ' in exact conformity to God's wiU, and full liberty
from the servitude of sin, no more perplexed about its
choice, but enjoying a radical and fundamental emanci-
pation, shall entirely embrace that consummate good!
When all our affections shall be regulated unalterably,
and our whole man happy in all the complements of
solid fruition ! When we shall enjoy an absolute ex-
emption from pain, sickness, want, labour, possibility of
sinning — unspeakable complacency flowing from all
these perfections, and fruition of the Sovereign Being,
' John, v., 24 ; I. Cor., xiii., 12 ; xv., 49 ; 11. Cor., v., 4, 8.

216 THE TRITE KELIGION.

the vision of God to continue eternally, as to their
duration, in a standing calm, without any flux and suc-
cession of time!' When we shall enjoy, see, and feel
such glorious things, and hear words which are unutter-
able !=

These contemplations are profitable to deter us from
sin, and provoke us to holiness; since "without holiness
no man shall see God." They breed, and will nourish
in us filial fear and caution, seeing we have to do with
a great and just judge, one who wiU not be mocked —
with a jealous God, a consuming fire — a powerful God,
from whom none can dehver : and with all this, a benign
and merciful God, ready to pardon those who return to
virtue and sober counsels. The contemplation of a
future life and happy eternity will excite our conten-
tion to enter into this happy state, and serve to wean
our affections and inclinations from sensual pleasures,
and to place them above with God, at whose right hand
are pleasures for evermore — in sum, to take up the
Cross, if it lie in our way, and to despise whatever
obstacle we may meet withal, for the illustrious things
which are set before us, and proposed to those brave and
heroic souls that overcome.

The faculties of the human soul capacitate us for a
more excellent and sublime condition than our fellow-
creatures. Man looks upward, whilst they grovel and
pore upon the ground on which they tread. His
thoughts are of things abstracted, and meditate on the
Divine Nature and attributes of God, disposing him to

' Heb., v., 9; ix., 15; xiii., 14, 21. ^ U. Cor., xii., 4.

THE TRUE EELIGION. 21 7

religion and piety, and to notions and sentiments of
nature totally different from things that perish.

INIen could not so universally value goodness, and,
when in sober thoughts, abhor villany, did not some-
thing imprinted within leave those characters. For
no man thinks well another should do him injury ; and
there is such a thing as repose and satisfaction after
a good and honourable, that is, after an honest and
worthy, action. And all virtue has certainly a suitable-
ness to some natural principle in us ; as, on the contrary,
the conscience of vicious men is a confirmation of it.
Besides, every sensible being has an innate and inslte
love and friendship to itself, and so cannot but desire its
eternal good and preservation in a state and condition
most perfect ; and man being composed of soul and body,
both must be gratified in some place and circumstance
adeqiiate to their constitution and nature.

This notion of an after-being and retribution is still a
corroboration of what we have all along been asserting,
namely, of the existence and nature of God, prompting
our due and solemn addresses to what is worthy of Him ;
else, it were a dishonour to offer Him any worship. But
when we find a Being so transcendently perfect, as that
it depends on nothing, and everything depends on it,
this challenges our utmost veneration, and invites our
love and service. We need, therefore, no compulsion
to engage our affections, and to the belief of these
things; seeing the light of nature leads us to them,
whatever prejudices ill education, institution, or other
averse accidents may have produced — through the

218 THE TRUE RELIGION.

malice of seducing spirits — the Ignorance and impiety of
others ; whilst even the Idolatry and superstition they
have introduced to obliterate and blot out of our minds
the belief of a future state, were argument enough to
convince men that there is one.

Egregious, then, is the madness of those who run the
hazard, whether there be a life to come or not ; since,
if none, the rules and precepts required to attain the
supposed bliss, are only such as a wise, and even natural
man, would prefer, for the excellency and benefit of
them in this present world ; and so did Epictetus, So-
crates, Antoninus, Seneca, Trajan, Severus, and several
brave and virtuous heathen. But, in case it should
fall out that there be another state and appendant retri-
butions, what can be more deplorably miserable, than
not to have lived well ? And if this be not an unde-
niable demonstration, how counseUable it is to resolve
upon a course of virtuous living, nothing in nature is.

To conclude, this doctrine is not only from the Scrip-
ture oracles, which we are yet to prove divine and infal-
lible, but the dictates of nature and of nations ; the
Druids, Egyptians, Persians, Indians, of the old world,
and those of the new. ^ In a word, the end of man is
here, (and from all we have asserted) to lead a hfe pro-
portionable to his worthy nature — in the knowledge of
his Maker and His works — sense of the divine love,
favour, protection, beneficence, and future well-being.

We see, then, the universal suffrage of the Pagan
world : and should not we rather believe who besides
' Homer, Diog. Laertius. Plutarch Lucan.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 219

all this have the Divine Revelation, (the wisest, most
knowing, and best of men in all ages unanimously
agreeing) than be carried away with a few fool-hardy
and abandoned wretches, ignorant and debauched fops,
who tremble to die in unbelief, though they seem to
live in that magnificent and daring infidelity. There
can be no rational, sedate, deliberate bravery and real
courage indeed, but in such as have good and solid hopes
of a future state and rewards for well doing : since, with
Plato,' death were an insupportable evil, without hopes
of a better life, in almost the words of St. Paul,^
Verily, we do not think nor dare we trust it, the
proudest of us all, that we shall one day be nothing, or
happy if we continue wicked ; for separated souls do
undoubtedly survive, by virtue either of their spiritual
and immortal nature, or by some Almighty Power pre-
serving them from being dissolved, and are as really in
some place, if not circumscriptlvely, as proper bodies
are, yet determinately and really present somewhere,
and not elsewhere.

In this state it is she also exercises her intellectual
powers ; when in death, passing by a real motion from
body to such other receptacle her just Creator shall
assign her, according as she is qualified for bhss or
misery. Certainly, that substance which can and does
exist without the body, and think, too, what she pleases,
notwithstanding the frailties of the body, has a being
after body ; and the mere capacity of the soul to appre-
hend these notions sufficiently evinces that there is an
1 PhKdo. ' I Cor., XV., 19.

220 THL TEUE RELIGION.

extra-mundane, posthume state and condition yet to come,
all which gives presage of its sempiternal existence ; and
that, whilst the soul, having emanant acts not belonging
to the body, even whilst she remains within it, can exist
without it. And if no substantial entity can be anni-
hilated, it must remain for ever. In vain were else all
those ceremonies, and ablutions to lustrate, purify, and
prepare the soul, which even the very Pagans used,
directed only by the light of nature ; so that this death
of ours is, as Heraclitus truly said, the soul's life, and
our life her death.'

These, (albeit there are many certain truths, which
are incapable of proof from natural appearances, and
discoveries cognoscible by us) to me are irrefragable and
convincing demonstrations of something still in expect-
ance, of more accomplished and consummate of our
nature, which this inextinguishable inclination and per-
petually thinking substance aspires and breathes after ;
and of which we become the more assured as we im-
prove our reason and our virtue — grow more religious
and abstracted from the animal world. And that the
essential man, the Soul, approaches nearer her restitu-
tion, by a thorough purgation from corporeal taints and
impurities, and lives nobly under the power of godlike
dispositions, and as becomes the dignity of his nature ;
preparing himself for that Dei-form, angelical, and
bright condition, when aU these impediments, that
charge and clog us here, being shaken off and left be-
hind, we shall be invested with the celestial robes, and
' Plato, Phaed. Porphyr. de Antro Nymph.

THE TRUE EELIGION. 221

by an union more intimate and mysterious, derive new
life and knowledge from the fountain, or rather ocean-
sea of all perfection. For thus the Supreme bounty
delights to diiFuse itself on the creature, without any
diminution of his own immensity, or essential proper-
ties, which alone are intransient and incommunicable.

That God has provided so glorious mansions for wor-
thy and holy souls, sufficiently declares how precious
that substance is, and how dear to Him, which we,
whom it most concerns, take so little care of. For,
what shall I call that QcoO noipav ? ' not to say part of
the god-like essence, with the Manichees, who dreamt that,
when it left the body, it reverted to the Divine original:
Sive hunc divino semine fecit
Hie Opifex rerum.^
but, with St. Paul, a particle of His goodness and won-
drous bounty, qualifying her to partake of the Divine
nature.' Still, as the image is ever inferior to the pro-
totype, so is the Soul in respect to her ISIaker. She is,
therefore, a similitude of Him rather, a divine rivulet
or emanation, a beam of His splendour, like that of the
sun, which makes day, without diminution of his glo-
rious body. She is, doubtless, the most charming cha-
racter of His image.** Could we with mortal eyes

' Macrobius Somn. Scip., 1. i., Plato. Critias.

2 " Whether with particles of heavenly fire
The God of Nature did his soul inspire."
Picart's version of Ah. Bannier. — Ovid, Met., lib. i., 80.
' Zach., xii., 8.

' Ad divinam iraaginem propiiis accedit humana virtus, quam
figura. — Cic. de Nat. Deor. "The divine image finds a closer
likeness in human virtue, than in human form."

222 THE TRUE RELIGION.

behold the Soul of some excellent and righteous man,
how (like the Philosopher's naked virtue) would it
charm us with admiration ! And it is that which truly
exalts our nature, and carries it up to those supernal
mansions, and brings it into an assimilation of our
resplendent Maker, and to an internal sensation of His
infinite perfections. It is for this, and the life to come,
so many brave souls have despised the delights and
sweets of life and ease here, to embrace tortures, fire,
racks, and gibbets, and even Phalaris's buU.

Man is the only creature that goes erect and looks up
to heaven,^ as if he had nothing to do on earth but to
set his foot upon it. His native country is above ;' his
nature does not acquiesce in any terrene elementary
thing ; something there is he is stiU in want of, how-
ever, in the midst of fulness ; for, wherever nature has
left a capacity of receiving an increase of perfection
from some other thing, there she has planted an appetite
to enjoy it. And what can this be but an immortal
and imperishable condition, which, not being to be
found below, must somewhere be above? God has
made nothing in vain ; but so has suited objects to the
nature of aU, that there is nothing left us to desire
which is not somewhere to be had.

There will come a time when what here we know
but in part shall be entire and consummate. Faith and
sanctity and other divine and passive graces and perfec-
tions, which lead to happiness and are things spiritual,
are not imparted to us for no end, as they would be,

^ Ovid. Met., i., ver. 85, &e. " Diog. Laert. in Anaxag.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 223

were there no future expectation. We cannot, there-
fore, reasonably imagine that the human Soul waa sent
into us with these infinitely abstracted comprehensions,
without proportionable objects to fill all its powers, and
leave no capacity unsatisfied one day, where the under-
standing shall be exalted to its highest pitch, and that,
■with an absolute and indefective plenitude, large as our
capacity, and permanent as our being.

There is in every one of us a certain innate aspira-
tion to live for ever; and, as Cicero expresses it," a
kind of natural augury of a future existence, and that
we are but, as it were, in a stranger's home. "Were our
dwelling only in this world, we could have no idea or
desire of any other being or satisfaction; so as that
cannot in justice be wanting to the most excellent crea-
ture, which is not to the most inferior of them. Both
God care for oxen ? Have not all their senses, that
which even gluts them, whilst the rational Soul is no
more contented than was Alexander with all the world.
Other creatures are carried regularly and by instinct to
the end they seek, but so is not man : he finds not his
sovereign good here. So true is that of St. Augustine,
" Fecisti nos ad Te, et inquietum est cor nostrum, donee
requiescat in Te." ^

It is the weight of this body of ours, depressing and
sinking the soul into matter, makes it so difficult to
emerge ; but then she is illustrious, when, withdrawing

1 Tuscul.
^ "Thou hast made us for Thyself, and restless is our heart
until it find rest in Thee." Confessions, lib. i., c. i.

224 THE TRUE RELIGION.

herself from this low converse, she shakes her fetters off,
abdicates the senses, and, by a kind of anticipation, quits
the lump of body before their natural dissolution ; and
she retiu"ns to her own substance when she returns to
virtue.

This recess, and how to profit by it — ah, how de-
licious 1 how charming ! When I consider the sacred
pledge of a soul, concredited, as she is, by God to every
man, and who expects he should return her Him again,
pure and immaculate as He gave it her ! What shall
we say, when he finds her so deformed, so ugly, un-
clean, and unlike what she was, as to profess He knows
her not? What excuse for the unfaithfulness of our
trust, the vices contracted, and that from so noble and
generous a stock, so celestial a race ? That this daughter
of God and sister of angels, capable of infinite happi-
ness, should lose her birthright, be ejected from her
native country, and made miserable to eternity ! How
has such a soul cause to reproach one, that, being of so
free and ingenuous a nature, we should confine her to a
sordid dungeon ; bring her into such abandoned com-
pany, and never give her breath, or suffer her to act
like herself, to trim and prune her wings ! Contemplate
from whence she came, and whither she should go!
How may she not execrate and curse the flesh, that
made her such a drudge ; and that, when marriageable
to an empire bigger than all the world, she has been
betrayed to a poor and wretched lazar !' When she

' Of this vassalage of the soul, see Plato's Phado, and Dr. Stil-
[mgfleet {Orig. Sac, 1. iii, c. 3., § 17).

THE TRUE RELIGION. 22.)

might have been learned, knowing, pure, and full of
light, we have brought her up in ignorance, and put
out her very eyes ! "When she was designed the hap-
piest of aU created beings, we have reduced her to this
misery ! But thus the lovely bride, this innocent and
spotless virgin, is no sooner born, but see how she is
bestowed ! The living is bound to the dead ; the clean
and pure to a sordid and ulcerous companion! For,
why else so low-spirited, so soon in wrath at every
trifle; so fearful, jealous, and diffident, proud and
covetous, voluptuous and vain ? In a word, why do we
lie in all this ordure and inactive sloth, when there is
a kingdom before us, mansions of bliss, and the journey
yet so short, so easy, so delightful ?

But from this, and a thousand deaths besides, she
only can be freed by breaking her prison-doors ; not of
the body, those walls of flesh, that environ her, but of
the vices she has contracted, which is the Centaur that
detains her in the labyrinth. On the other side, if so
she have behaved herself, as by resisting the violence
offered her, to recover her native freedom, and, emanci-
pated from the tyranny she had been under, resume
her virtue, she is Immediately joined in second nuptials
to a choice and glorious condition, where she now
dwells no longer under subjection ; but, being arbitress
of her own happiness, and reinforced with uncontrollable
powers. Is able to vanquish all assaults, allay and charm,
those perturbations, that the slavish and mutinous pas-
sions at any time Insolently raise against her. She
controls Inclinations, composes the lower appetites,

VOL. I. Q

226 THE TRUE RELIGION.

withdraws incentives, moderates and coerces whatever
she finds exorbitant, and acts the part of a wise and
sovereign princess, and sits like a queen indeed: Et
prwsto est Domina omnium et Regina ratio, as the orator
has described her.'

In a word, her government is natural and easy, and
she becomes as happy, even in this life, as is consistent
with the exercise of the noblest graces ; presiding, as
she does, like a supreme and universal monarch; and
she steadily guides the reins, and enjoys a sweet and
peaceful dominion, unless she suiFer herself to be again
corrupted by the fatal charms of a wanton prosperity,
become remiss, slack her hand, and let fall the sceptre
out of it ; or that she meanly resign, make faint resist-
ance, betray her trust, and, basely surrendering her
title, consent to her own deposition. So true is that,
Facile domabit cuncta, qui menti imperat.^

But the rules and arcana of this polity ^ are not to
be learned from the trivial usages and institutions of
men, but from the Divine Oracles, and the mysteries of
religion, the aids of reason, our conversation with prac-
tical virtue, (not feigned and theatrical) the exercises of
habitual graces, and a purgative life. And thus a soul,
by careful discipline, recovers herself, by original justice,
inflexible honesty, and by what is true and really good ;
upon which there succeeds a certain heroical celsitude

' See this incomparably described in Cicero, Tusc, 1.
" " He will subdue all things easily, who has the mastery of
self." See Prov., xvi., 32.
^ TertuU. de Anim., c. 4.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 227

and serenity of mind, joys intellectual, and, in sum, a
felicity the most consummate attainable in this life, be-
cause it is the life of God, and an antepast of Heaven.
And this, the upper man, and noble soul, may attain to
here; but then he must be vigilant, go continually
armed, and be ready to encounter every thought and
imagination of reluctant sense, and the first prolusions
of the enemy. He must stand upon the guard, and ex-
amine all that passes, and, finding himself too weak at
any time, call for aid from above. Let us hear the de-
vout Simplicius,' though a Heathen :

" Oh, blessed fountain of light and immortality ! who,
to form us after thine own image, hast impressed on us
that glorious character, an immortal soul ; whose descent,
being from Thee, has no superior but Thee, and is en-
riched with such transcendent faculties to think, dis-
cern, resolve, and, by thine Omnipotent aid and ovir
endeavours, to pursue that which is best and most
agreeable to the dignity of our being : let, oh ! let not
tliat emanation from Thee, given to be the conductress
of our life, and guide to supernal mansions, be so im-
mersed in sensual and brutish appetites, as, by yielding
to the least of them, to sully that bright and illustrious
mirror, which is the reflection of Thy resplendent face,
or lose the prerogative with which we are invested.
Clear, more and more, the entanglements of our under-
standing : dissipate the mists which our depraved affec-
tions benight us in ; emancipate us of those weights which
depress the nobler faculties, that, delivered from this
• Simplic. Comm. in Epictet. Enchir., cap. Ixxix.

q2

228 THK TRUE RELIGION.

prison, freed of these ponderous chains, we may no more
lie under the tyranny of our deadly enemies, the preju-
dices of custom, superstition, popular delusion, the love
of pleasure, and the fugitive satisfactions of sense : but
discerning the bright and glorious beam, from whence
the soul enkindled aspires to be re-united, we may
ascend the celestial tower, and cast down these usurpers,
scatter the impostures, and at once shake oiF those im-
pediments, which, through our sad and deplorable weak-
nesses, have hitherto prevented us ; and the resplendent
virtues of peace, justice, humility, charity, all the virtues,
all the graces, with an inflamed zeal be again revived in
souls devoted to Thy service."

It is the lower man, which, seeking to gratify and
indulge its ally, the sense, is perpetually caressing it
with objects which fascinate and deprave it ; as more
agreeable to it than what reason suggests, because the
senses are gross and palpable. It is this which inter-
poses the enmity between the flesh and the spirit, the
brute and the man in us — disturbs the government, and
mars the image of God's vicegerent, or rather the little
Deity within us. Let us hear the devout Granada,'
resembHng the human soul to her Divine Creator in
substance, essence, understanding, and operation. " She
neither eats," says he, " nor drinks, sleeps, nor is visible;
she is immaterial, and in every Individual simple and
but one : God Is a spirit^-so is the soul ; invisible — the

' "El Amor de Dios" — a Dominican, one of the greatest
ascetic writers of Spain, born in 1505. See Nicolas, Bibliothec.
Hisp. Eiog. Univer.

THE TKUE RELIGION. 229

soul is SO ; immortal — so is she : God is an Intellectual
Spirit — so is the soul ; has freedom of wiU — she has the
like : God is holy, just, and good, and so would the soul
be, too, but for the Tempter ; nor is she, for all this,
without some footsteps and traces of those virtues.
And as to her essence and operations, God is simple,
indivisible, and so is the soul: He is all in all, gives
being to all, and, being but one, operates in alL In like
manner, is the soul but one, simple, indivisible, and
spiritual, working all those diiferent motions in the
little world, our bodies ; giving form, being, life, to all
the functions, senses, organs, in ten thousand different
offices; so as, albeit angels may more peculiarly re-
semble their Malicr, because, being peculiarly spiritual,
they have no commerce with bodies; yet, considering
the several operations of the soul in the body, she seems,
in truth, to be more like Him than are those glorious
messengers themselves, and is His only representative
here below."

Indeed, God alone is infinite and eternal in aU accep-
tations, having neither beginning nor end of days ; but
so is not the soul, unless as to its capacities of duration,
and manner of understanding; forasmuch as there is
nothing capable to fill and satiate her but God Himself,
in whom only is all fulness; and she still desires to
know and to learn more ; so that in the soul of man
there is an infinite faculty, which would have no end or
limit even in this life, did not death interpose, and put
a period to her external operations : the internal never
die.

230 THE TEUE EELIGION.

CONTINUATION.

Thus, is the soul the type and lively character of her
blessed Maker; not as rational only, or of mutual
faculties and substance, in which many yile and profli-
gate men, who pervert their faculties, dedecorate and
pollute themselves, (becoming rather so many images
of the devil) frequently exceed the best of men ; but in
her rectitude and pursuit of virtue, justice, fortitude,
temperance, meekness, charity, and as she is superna-
turaUy enlightened.' So, indeed, the understanding,
wUl, conscience, or intellectual recorder, renders us, like
our Creator, symbolical of a kind of Trinity. " She wUl
deserve eternal life," says Lactantius, " if she betray
not the succours which reason offers, and which God
has reserved to assist her ; she can and may vindicate
her dominion, maintain her empire, and oft has freed
herself from those usurpers, escaped the inescations of
sense, and reduced her vassals to obedience.^" And yet
these dangerous enemies, the objects of our senses, and
consequently of our passions and affections, are not alto-
gether to be abandoned and quite obliterated. They
should not, I say, be quite extinguished, but are hugely

'■ Gal., v., 13-26; Ephes., iv., 24; James, iii., 17, 18.

2 " Qui si delicatus magis ac tener in hac viti fuerit, qu&m ratio
ejus exposcit; si, virtute contempta, desideriis se cariCls addixerit,
cadet et premetur in terrain. Sin autem, ut debet, statum suum,
quern rectum sortitus est, promte constanterque defenderit; si,
terrse, quam calcare ac vincere debet, non servient ; vitam mere-
bitur sempiternam. — Lactant. De Opif. Dei, c. 19.

THE TKUE RELIGION. 231

useful to exercise and prove us ; yea, and may be qua-
lified, as far as is necessary, for the support of life and
the comfortable fruitions of it ; since, being no other
than the motions of the soul herself, inciting us to laud-
able and worthy actions, they come to be perverted only
by being too much caressed and indulged. We are
not, therefore, to blame our appetites, or passions,
which God has ordained to be the scenes of our obe-
dience, and as being but the natural effects of that
animal spirit in our bodies from external objects ; but
strive and endeavour that we do not over-cherish their
emotions and solicitudes, in our wills and fancies, till
they become exorbitant and unreasonable, or judge and
determine of things through those false and delusory
optics. For the soul does not so necessarily sympathize
with the body, as that she cannot forbear these in-
dulgences. No passion can compel the will, without
our own consent. The immediate obsequiousness of
the body to the will shows, rather, that the motions of
the mind are no way mechanical, but a more noble, dis-
tinct, and incorporeal principle. The power of the un-
derstanding over the will, is to regulate only ; nor can
the will, refractory and mutinous as it often is, or our
passions, rebellious as they are, knowingly and sedately
wish for what is destructive of their good ; unless our
present impatience of being satisfied for the time de-
prave our natures, and men obstinately stop their ears,
connive and shut their eyes, and will not seriously con-
sider, nor act like understanding and reasonable crea-
tures, to examine and discuss things impartially, curb

232 THE TRUE EELIGION.

and moderate, yea, crucify their inclinations. For the
human Soul acts as the will disposes, and that, as the
understanding prompts.

Wherefore, our care must be to rectify the intel-
lectual faculty, and that it resign not to appetite ; that
perverse will become not vicious, and the vice, custom,
and that induce necessity : that, as the wise man ad-
vises,' we give the water no passage, that evil enter
not the first door of sense, eye, or ear, touch, or taste ;
nor the second one, of fancy ; nor the third, of under-
standing; nor the fourth, of the will; lest it break
forth into act, and one act produce two, and that a
third, and it become habitual, and double to infinite ;
and, in fine, obliterate the very principles of nature,
and debase us below the vilest animal. "We may be
angry, provided we sin not, nor let more of the passion
loose than what is just, and adequate to the ofience :
but it should never be such as to proceed to rage,
and irreconcUeable reproaches, or let the sun go down
upon our wrath : that, as we are advised, our fears be-
tray not the succour which reason offers, or by render-
ing us too remiss, when upon a good and brave occasion
it imports us to bear up. And so of the rest of the
irascible and concupiscibles, reason and religion should
hold the reins. Remember this, and show ourselves men ;^
that is, do manly things, and not to let our passions
loose, like untamed beasts; not be lions in our own
houses, furious, morose, peevish, snarling and worrying

' Ecclus., XXV., 25. ^ Isaiah, xlvi., 8.

THE TRUE EELIGION. 2S3

upon any slight occasion ; nor be thorns and briars to
all that come near us, and thwart our inclinations.

The mind, says our noble Verulam,' has that empire
over the body which the Lord has over his vassals ; but
our reason over our passions, that command which a
magistrate has over citizens, which should be gentle,
benign, easy, and discreet. St. Augustine,^ I remem-
ber, strangely wonders at the folly of men, so desirous
of knowing other things, before they learn to know
themselves. What pride, what passion, what envy and
malice, lust and avarice, in a word, what dens of wild
and unclean beasts should we discover in our own
bosoms ! Verily, passions always are and ever will be
in us, and so they should ; but it is not convenient they
shall always be in action, though always in a readiness :
like well-disciplined soldiers, they should always stand
in their ranks and files, and know how to handle their
arras, but be content with their pay, and do violence to no
man, till led on by an experienced commander, and
when the cause is just ; and then they are for defence,
and to guard, not to injure ourselves or others. They
are subjects, not sovereigns, and must be kept in obe-
dience, lest they dethrone their superior; and when
they rise in tumult, they are to be suppressed and re-
duced to order again.

Thus regulated and employed on worldly objects,
there is not a passion but is highly useful. When, for
instance, om- love is placed on virtue, and the sovereign
Good, which is God, our hatred and aversion against base

' Bacon's Instaur. Magna, 1. 5. '' Confess., lib. 10.

234< THE TRUE RELIGION.

ind unworthy things, our grief and regret for our own
defects and follies, and so of the rest. For a wise man
should not be without his passions, but above them.
Our great Example was so ; and those who wUI be
happy must be so, when they feel them stirring, hold
in the bit, and never suffer the beast to ride away with
the man, but keep a steady hand, regulated and free
from excess; for so did our Lord and Master; and
therefore have divines called them propassiong. He
bounded them with reason, and suffered them hardly to
go a little forward, when He scourged the sacrilegious
profaners of the Temple.' For passions, which with
the Pathomyotomists are, as it were, the muscles of the
soul, arc like the winds ; they serve to swell and fill
the sails, and urge and move us forwards. Nothing
more useful, while they gently breathe, nothing more
benign : but, when once they estuate, grow high and
impetuous, they raise the billows into mountains, toss
and submerge the vessel. An angry man shall never
want woe ; like fire and water, they are excellent ser-
vants, but cruel masters. Nothing is more profitable,
whilst kept within the chimney and the channel ; but,
when once they grow too big for the one, or bear down
the banks of the other, and get dominion, they take
hold of the house, and overflow the country, and a
dreadful conflagration and ruin follows.

Nor are we, for all this, to complain of nature, as if
dealing hardly and unkindly with us, in rendering us
susceptible of these impressions, and obnoxious to the
' S. John, ii., 13.

THE TRUE EELIGIOX. 'l-JO

rage of such unruly monsters, the clangers and errors
to which we are exposed : smce, as we showed, all our
corporeal motions are sensated by the soul, and she can
give check or hberty, control and curb them at pleasure ;
which is to me a kind of demonstration of her inde-
pendence from the body, and a manifest conviction that
God has inspired it, and furnished us with such aids
against their rude and sudden incursions, as needs no-
thing save our own endeavours and resolutions, co-ope-
rating with a grace which is always ready to assist us ;
but without which all the ri^kt reason the Socinians and
others glory in wUl hardly entitle us to what we have
lost, or take out the spot which has tainted us : so im-
petuously are we hurried to our own destruction, and
to coveting the forbidden fruit.

Besides, He has placed her in this station, that man
being a voluntary and intellectual agent and arbiter of
his actions, when we shall have given proof and argu-
ment of virtue, He may remunerate with the more
noble reward: and pronouncing us capable of higher
felicity, communicate to us Himself, which is the sum
of happiness. For upon this account the great Apostle'
describes to us what pleasure he took in infirmities, in
necessities, and distresses, and that when he was weak,
then he was strong, as having in a readiness to revenge
aU disobedience, &c. It is for this we are bid to love
our enemies, to bless them who curse us, pray for those
who persecute us; to turn the other cheek, go the

' n. Cor., xii., 6, 10.

236 THE TRUE EELIGION.

other furlong : in a word, not to render evil for evil,
but to overcome evil with good.

What an important and highly necessary thing, then,
it is, that man should know himself, and the dignity of
that heaven-born inmate, his immortal soul! "SVhen
the wise man said, " Know thyself," (says Cicero) he
bid thee know thy soul.' And the Poet —

Ne te quaesiveris extra.
Seek not thyself without thyself. It is like travelling
other countries and foreign kingdoms, before we have
seen any thing of our own.

Man is the whole world's compendium : and though
his body be elementary, kneaded of a handful of re-
fined dust, his soul is ethereal, incorruptible, and
immortal. He is nature's great miracle, the divine
epitome of the creation, and the richest furniture of
both worlds, this and that to come : fitted and prepared
for the highest favours, to converse with angels, and,
being purified by virtue, to be taken into the bosom of
his Maker,^ freed from error, ignorance, impetuous
loves, human passions, and infirmities, and that all Ms
delights are chaste, rational, godlike, endless.

What, oh, what shall I call thee, O, illustrious par-
ticle, but a ray of the Divine Light itself!
divinas particulam auras ;'

' Cum igitur dicit, nosce te, hoc dicit, nosce animum tuum. — Cic .
Tusc, 1.

OvToi ^iv rs^outra, els to SfWiov avTTj to Belov anepf^eTai, to Betov
Te (cai addvarov, Kai (ppovijiov. — Plato's Phxdo.

' Hor., Sat., lib. ii., 79.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 237

(not to say a decision from the godlike substance, as
Philo platonizes a little too boldly) all but a spark of
His incommunicable essence. For so the orator, and,
with becoming veneration, Humanus animus, decerptus
ex mente divind cum alio nullo, nisi cum ipso Deo (si fas
est didu) comparari potest J Not by any substantial or
real emanation, which were indeed bold to assert ; but,
as she is immortal, spiritual, and intellectual — perfec-
tions in God transcendent, in man by way of signature
and idea only ; or, as the Apostle himself,^ as well as
the poet of near alliance with him —

ToC yap KOL ycvos icTfiev.
" For we are his offspring."

And hadst thou been, my soul, of meaner extraction,
how couldst thou have been the object of such a Saviour,
and such a love ? As, rather than He would not make
thee happy, when He saw thee so miserable, betrayed
and captivated by thy senses, would Himself descend,
become incarnate, palpable, and obvious to our sense.
And this body and this nature (of a reasonable soul and
human flesh subsisting) has He exalted, that, being
lifted up. He might draw all men to Him.

But, alas ! when all is done, in such a dungeon does
this precious jewel of ours lie, that she neither discerns
nor is sensible of her own operations ; no, nor how the
body itself, her domicile here, is built. She knows not

' " The human soul, as it is an emanation from the Divine
mind, can be compared with nothing else (I speak reverently) but
with God Himself."— Cic, Tusc, lib. v.

' Acts, xvii., 28 ; Aratus.

238 THE TRUE RELIGION.

what gave the first motion to the first moved, the heart;
and whether now we move by the spirits in the inter-
current nerves, the heart, or blood, or by what other
family. In short, " that a soul we have we know, but
what, where, whence she is, we cannot tell."' And
though we only live by breath, we neither know how
nor why we breathe : so as after two of the most saga-
cious persons of our age^ (or perhaps of any other)
have spent volumes on the subject, treating of the use
of respiration only, they have ingenuously acknowledged
it a hopeless search !^

Pro superi, quantum mortalia pectora cajcffi
Noctis habent *

We know not the very principles by which we live,
nor where we dwell, nor what we do, nor are. But,
when we shall be freed from these impediments, it is
then we shall be happy, indeed f it is then the soul shall

'■ Animum habere nos scimus ; quid sit animus, ubi sit, qualis
sit, et unde, nescimus. — Sen., Ep., 121.

" [He names only one ; the other, probably, is his friend, the
celebrated Boyle, in one of whose works {Physico-Mechan., E. x.)
there is an article upon the use and process of Respiration, which

concludes with the following quotation from St. Augustine

" JMagis eligo cautam ignorantiara conflteri, quam falsam scientiam
proflteri.]

' Advocent in consilium omnes ingenii viros, quotquot sese na-
ture consultos arbitrantur, sudabunt scio plus satis, priusquam
verum respirationis usum invenerint. — Dr. Ent. Antid., De usu.
Resp., p. 14.3.

' "Ye Gods! What thick, involving darkness blinds
The stupid faculties of mortal minds !" — Picart.
Ovid, Met., lib. iv., 472. ^ Cic. Tusc, hb. 1.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 239

know and be known; and whether the seeds of all
sciences, knowledge, and reason, were inherent in pre-
cxistency, which are now excited and stirred up to act,
by the suggestion, ministry, and retrievement of the
senses; and whether we now recal things only to
memory, which we knew before : it being more than
probable, that the soul in separation, and departing
hence, carries away all her innate and acquired notions,
and it is certain, receives also higher and more sublime
ones.

REFLECTIONS.

We shall then contemplate the universe in its arche-
type; namely, the intellectual world, in the Divine
mind ; in which dwell all the forms and exemplars of all
that has been, is, or shall be, in the angelical, elementary,
great, and little world; the substance, quiddity, and
essence of everything ; the prime and proximate matter
of all the species and kinds of beings, together with the
form and principle of motion in everything. Nay, (and
in comparison of which, all this knowledge is yet but
ignorance) even to the full of our most enlarged desires,
the Divine decrees themselves, immortality and infinity;
the unexphcable, adorable Trinity, and hypostatical
union,' and other recondite mysteries of our most holy
rehgion. There it is (to speak with a devout person, )2
the records of eternity shall be exposed to view ; when
we shall discover upon what apt junctures and admi-
rable dependences of things so perplexed, cross, and
mysterious to our shallow reasonings, the designs of

' See Pet. du Moulin. De Cognit. Dei. ' Sir. Howe.

240 THE TRUE RELIGION.

tLem were laid: when in that mirror, that Speculum
^ternitatis, we shall see all that truth, the knowledge
whereof can be any ways grateful to our nature ; and in
his light see light; and by that light all those vast
treasures of knowledge and wisdom shall lie open, with-
out enclosure, and the most voluptuous epicurism, in
reference to it, become innocent. Where there shall
be neither lust, nor forbidden fruit; no prohibition of de-
sirable knowledge, no affectation of undesirable. When
we shall trace all those rivulets which successively pass
by us here in petty streams, to the wide ocean, and the
glimmering beams of light to the fountain of light itself.
In sum, when the pleasure of speculation shall be with-
out the toil, and that maxim eternally antiquated, that
" Increase of knowledge increases sorrow."

Oh, how charming a scene will it be to behold
whence the vast frame of all nature sprung! what
stretched out the interminable expanse, planted the
pillars of the poised earth, and turned the mighty
wheels of Providence through all succession of time !
What that arm, which holds the spirits of darkness in
adamantine chains, and checks the rage of tyrannous
princes, and the tumults of restless and ungovernable
multitudes, that the few virtuous and dear to Heaven
be not made a prey ! How delightful wiU be the con-
templation of comprehending all the possible effects of
the Supreme Power, as far as a glorified creature can
live, or desire to dive into infinity ! To have a pro-
spect of the innumerable creatures in the creative power
Df the Almighty ! Nor less to consider what has re-

THE TRUE RELIGION, 241

strained its full exertion, and that uncontrolled justice,
that it did not at once avenge itself on the contuma-
cious, and turn the whole world of sinners into ruin and
desolation.

What a happy state, when all our doubts shall be
solved, all our infirmities healed, all our senses unbound,
all our faculties inspirited with new vigour ! A scene of
love and fruitions opened all about us, and letting us into
the heart, where the noble thoughts of that love dwelt
from eternity, which made the great and consummately
happy God become a man of sorrows, and the Deity to
be clad in human flesh ! Eternity to become the birth of
time, and the Son of the Most High to pitch his tabernacle
among mortal men ! In a word, (O, stupendous !) to
teach, reduce, and restore sinful creatures, and conduct
them to supernal happiness ; redeem lost and miserable
dust with the blood of God ! And that God to embrace
a painful and shameful cross ; become a victim to in-
censed justice — a spectacle to angels and men I

Nor all this by transient and superficial knowledge,
figures, and umbrations, but immediate and intuitive
notices ; nor longer by mediation of species, nor con-
fusedly in universals ; but distinctly, properly, and by
their essential definitions. Our knowledge will then, I
say, be perfect, without need of art and reasoning ; as
being itself a perpetual ratiocination, such as that of
God and holy angels ; penetrating at once the universal
nature of things, and beholding in their causes things
which cannot be known but by exercise and habits, ex-
perience, comparing, time, succession, and by degrees;

VOL. I. B

242 THE TEUE RELIGION.

and, after all this labour, but imperfectly; wMch are
aU defects separated souls are exempt of.

In the life to come, when the capacity of every sense
and faculty shaU be improved to the utmost, and no
object to interpose or present itself, but such as is
capable to afford an entire and distinct satisfaction and
complacency. It is then that, cleared of aU suffusion,
we shall contemplate that fulness, which can only satiate
without satiety. Finally, it is there (and verily, for
which I more ardently thirst after it) that we shall be
restored to the enjoyment of our departed friends, holy
and excellent persons, whom as our lives we have
loved. The contemplation of this made the orator, in
the person of Cato, profess that, old as he was, he
would not accept of longer life, and become young again,
in assurance of shortly seeing and enjoying the delights
of another world.'

If thus a Heathen was so transported with hopes of
seeing again those heroes and worthy men, famous for
their noble actions and moral virtues, and of which they
had yet but conjectures only ; how should we Chris-
tians languish after the fruition of that blessed state,
the vision of God himself, the glorified body of our
lovely Jesus, the city of the living God, the celestial
Jerusalem ; the innumerable host of angels, spirits of

' Oh ! prseclarum diem, cum ad illud divinum animorum con-
cilium ciEtumque proficiscar, et cum ex hac turba et coUuvione
discedam. (Cic. De Sen.) — " 0, glorious day, when I shall set out
to join that goodly council and assemblage of spirits, and quit for
ever this grovelling scene of turmoil and defilement !"

THE TRUE EELIGIOX. 243

just men made perfect ;' all our excellent friends, dear
children, relations, and acquaintances ; all those great
and admirable persons, of whom the world was not
worthy, and we have heard such glorious things, joining
with Moses in his Song, with David in his Psalms, with
all the saints and celestial hierarchy. In perpetual jubi-
lation and hallelujahs ! O ! happy day, when, divested
into spirit, and set on shore in that invisible continent,
we shall repose in the sedate and tranquil ether ; see
through the curtains of matter new and surprising
scenes and ideas, beyond the limits of finite beings.

Why, then, do we any longer perplex and betoil our-
selves in macerating studies, and labour in the fire
about any thing but this one thing needful to put us into
this happy state, and conduct us into the peaceful har-
bour! Methinks, Avith Cleombrotus, (reading Plato's
Pha3do) we should almost be impatient of life; or,
rather, with the apostle, (who had been rapt into the
third heaven, saw and heard what he could not describe
and utter) desire to be dissolved,'^ which were best of all ;
and, in the mean time, be daily advancing in virtue,
till we are in some degree refined from the dross and
sulliage ^ of our former lives' incursions, and gotten as
near the top of Olympus as we can do in the circum-
stances of this mortal condition.

Who would not with a glorious ambition aspire to
this perfection, and strive to qualify himself for this
apotheosis, this advantageous exchange, where, enlarged

■ Heb. xii., 22, 23.
2 Phil., i., 23. ' Cic. Tusc.

E 2

244 THE TRUE RELIGION.

from her narrow confinement, our souls shall no longer
remain obnoxious to her treacherous flesh and rebellious
passions, nor ratiocinate and grow knowing by little
parcels and pittances, tedious elucubrations, the auxilia-
ries of erroneous senses and material images : but, (as
Seneca ' introduces the father of Marcia, showing her
deceased son, Metellus, the singularities of the other
world) the soul shall emerge as out of sleep, and break
forth of this dismal cloud ; intuitively, nakedly, purely,
in one instant, be put into full possession of all that the
Soul can desire ; ^ and know, and comprehend herself
entirely ; which, whilst from her we derive all we know,
or comprehend of all things else, is the only thing that
she herself nor knows nor comprehends.

O, wonder of wonders, that the soul should be light,
and nothing more common, more perspicuous than hght;
yet nothing more obscure, more dark ! And that that
which shows us all things else, should conceal herself !
That which is within, without, and all about us, should
be invisible ;' so as we see not what we see ! Who that
has a spark of generous emulation, I say, would endure
that the most evident of things, and the most important,
too, should continue thus dark and concealed? That
that by which we see, move, discourse, and perform all
our actions — nay, by which we are and exist — we should

' Consolat. ad Marciam., c. xxv. ^ Tertull. de Anim., c. 53.
"Ann; be fxavq ovre napovcra, ovre amovcra opaTai. — Xenoph.
Cyrop., 1. 8.

" Animus autem solus, nee quum adest, nee quum discedit ap-
paret." — Cic. de Senect.

THE TRUE EELIGION. 245

be stark blind to, and ignorant of? But so it has
pleased our Maker, to mortify our pride and vanity,
whilst grovelling here below, and immersed in sensual
pleasures, we tread not the paths of those virtues and
dispositions which lead us to it, and neglect to know
ourselves. Ah ! my soul, how fain would I be once
acquainted with thee, with whom I thus continually
converse, yet neither see, nor know, nor hear ; whilst
yet I feel, and hear, and see thee by effects ! That I
might know but what thou art, by whom I am, for
whom I live, and where thou dwellest, who art so near,
and yet so far from me ! '

Shortly, shortly the curtain will be drawn, the mist
be dissipated, and day appear ; Then shall the glorious
scene be opened, the Bride descend,^ when I shall see^
and know Thee fully, and enjoy thee for ever, and
Him who made thee, and gave thee to me ! Methinks
I behold (as the eloquent Father'' describes it) how
the soul, finding herself unfettered and at large, she
trims and spreads her plumes for the celestial flight,
and wondering at her escape, as awakened out of a dis-
mal dream, and delivered rather from a hideous tem-
pest, she finds herself on the banks of Elysium, feels a
new spring of life within her, an unconfined light about
her, new comprehensions and capacities ; and for a while
admiring from whence she came, what she is, ravished
at her own felicity, and overcome with joy, dissolves

Lactant. De Opif. Dei, c. 6. " Eev., xxi., 2.

3 I. Cor., xiii., 12. ^ TertuU. de Anim., c. 53.

^46 THE TRUE RELIGIOX.

into the praises of her Liberator ! Would not seriously
the imagination almost transport one ?

0, Thou, most high, prime, and super-excellent nature,
who art All things, and in All ; by whom aU things live,
move, and have their existence ; whose instruments all
agents are — wherever Thou art, who everywhere art.
Thou art all things, and canst do all things. If Thou
art anything at all, and not rather the Cause and Being
of all, if at all Thou be a Cause. Whatever Thou art,
Thou art Infallible ; and we know not what name to
give Thee but Perfection and Goodness. And Thou
who art good, art all good, and all things are good in
Thee. Thou art Thine own wisdom. Thine own power,
Thine own consummate happiness! Thou, O Thou,
who art all this, teach us to comprehend Thee beyond
those speculations, and intellectual gazings on Thine
astonishing perfections, by such influxes, as filling us
with divine and supernal qualities, may exalt our facul-
ties beyond their natural power, and bring them into
an assimilation and conformity to the most accomplished
idea of Thy goodness, together with an inward sensation
of their effects. O, Thou, who canst do all this, and
more than we can comprehend, ask, or think, enter into
us, illustrate our understanding, instruct our ignorance,
and teach us to know Thee, and by Thee, ourselves.

For it is not enough for a brave and heroic mind to
live so as to merit no reproof of others, or of ourselves ;
but that we strive to add more lustre, brightness, and

THE TRUE RELIGION. 247

perfection to the soul ; that we purify, and render it fit
for its reception into the superior mansions and friend-
ship of heaven, by acts, I say, of virtue, and extraordi-
nary gallantry. I tell you, (says Seneca) betwixt God
and good men, there is a friendship — friendship, do I
call it? yea, an intimate acquaintance.'

In this interim, then, we should sometimes withdraw
and ananchorize ourselves^ to enjoy those pure and
abstracted delights.' There is no climbing up to the
knowledge of God, or of ourselves, but by contempla-
tion of what most resembles Him, and is nearest to
Him — our immortal souls, purified by a holy life, which
is the God within us. We should take oiF our aiFections
from union and adhesion to false appearances, cement
and fasten them to solid and worthy things, from
whence our appetites and violent passions may have
broken them off. Verily, the recess is highly neces-
sary, and that we now and then, I say, suspend our
cogitations from sensual and material objects,'' check
and recall our thoughts, and, directed by the light
within, introvert our contemplations, act with freedom:
and we may ask her counsel and assistance, and hear
her speak, without disturbance and impertinent avoca-
tions.

' Inter bonos viros ao Deum amicitia est ; amicitiam dico ? imo
etiam necessitudo. — De pruden., cap. 21.

^ Magni est autem ingenii revocare mentem a sensibus. — Cic.
Tusc, 1. 1.

^ Apices animae.

* See this excellently described by Plotinus, 1. 6, c. 5.

248 THE TEUE RELIGION.

This, this alone is the only way to know our souls,
and ourselves, and how we differ from other creatures.
By this we shall be able to discover that the body is
scarce an essential part of man, and that the material
and perishing substance can never comprehend ' what
is immaterial and perdurable. She wiU sweetly charm
all the perturbations that surround us here, transport
and carry us beyond the sphere of sense, and entertain
us, not with these Socratic discourses, but with new
Illapses and discoveries of indeed another world, nearer
hand, yet richer than Peru and both the Indies. And,
though she be still encompassed with this dusky cloud,
so as we yet see but through a glass darkly, we may
perceive some glimmerings of light, how bright and
charming she is within, and what a paradisian day is
purpling the hills, which even through this tinsel veil of
flesh shall shortly be removed, and the horizon cleared
— when the sensible powers shall be refined and spirit-
ualized, and the soul be on the wing to the mansions of
repose and bliss.^ It is a noble contemplation, and sign
of a great and heroic mind to be breathing after the
separate state. Lord, to behold Thee in glory, is to be
transformed into it ; to contemplate Thy divine excel-
lency, is to become Thy illustrious image; to know
Thee by distinct perception, and Thy works by irradia-
tion of Thy brightness, will then be imparted to us, when
we shall at once become wise, holy, vastly knowing,

' See St. Augustine's description of The City of God, 1. 22,
c. 30. Erit ergo illius civitatis, &c.
^ See Seneca, Consol. ad Marc, c. 24.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 249

self-satisfied, and perfect beyond the perfection of crea-
tures in their highest excellency ! In union with Thee
we shall have nothing to wish, nothing to seek, or fur-
ther to desire ! Our services of Thee will be still new
pleasure, and such tides of fresh additions to our satis-
factions and intellectual joys, as at once will actuate us
with a vigour able to converse with Deity itself, and
enlarge our capacities to comprehend Him, who is In-
comprehensible.

Let us hear the excellent stoic: "Through the inter-
val of infancy and age, as from another womb, we
hasten and speed away to another Birth and Original.
Another state of things expects us."' And, a little
after, " Shortly, very shortly Thou shalt behold all the
mysteries of nature, this darkness shall be discussed,
and Thou encircled with a glorious lustre," &c.^

These are real things, and great, to which the most
sagacious and intelligent brutes pretend not. Their
impressions come altogether from without, are fluid and
transient, and therefore quickly vanish : nor can they
recoUect or think abstractedly, and of this future state
of retribution, intellectual life and glory ; on which is
founded all that can render our condition considerably
different from, or better than that of beasts ; environed,
as we are, with such restless passions, unsatisfiable appe-
tites, the accidents and anxieties of an umbratile life :

' Per hoc spatium quod ab infanti^ patet in senectutem, in alium
maturescimus partum. Alia origo nos expectat, aliua rerum status,&c

^ Aliquando naturse tibi arcana retegentur; discutietur ista
caligo, et lux undique clara percutiet. — Sen., Ep., 102.

250 THE TRUE EELIGION.

SO as, if In this alone we have all our hopes, we are
indeed of all creatures the most miserable'-

" For to what purpose was I born at aU, and should
rejoice to have been among the number of the living ?
"What! to be a passage for our meat and drink? — to
cram this frail and fluid carcase, which must shortly
perish (unless it every foot be gorged), and live a slave
to sickness, and the dread of death, to which we are all
obnoxious? Take once from life but this inestimable
good, and it is not worth the sweat and labour we
bestow upon It. Oh ! how contemptible a thing is man,
unless he raise himself above humanity !" So Seneca.^
" If thy soul, whatever she is, perish and dissolve with
the body, I cannot see in what they are to be esteemed
blessed, who, having never attained any reward of their
virtue, haply, have even perished for virtue's sake." *

In sad earnest, if we have no farther prospect than
this miserable being here, whatever circumstances of
health, yoiith, riches, fame, beauty, and the inferior
pleasures of brutish sense, may seem to alleviate the
hastening and fatal period ; or that there be no life and

' I. Cor., XV. 19.

^ Quid enim erat cur in numero viventium me positum esse
gauderem ? An ut cibos et potum percolarem ? ut hoc corpus
casurum ac fluidum periturumque, nisi subinde impleatur, sar-
cirem, et viverem aegri minister ? ut mortem timerem, cui omnes
nascimur ? Detrahe hex inasstimable bonum ; non est vita tanti,
ut sudem, ut sestuem. Oh ! quam contempta res est homo, nisi
supra humana se erexerit ! Sen. Nat. Quasst., 1. i., Prasf.

Et fiev aiia Toif a-mfiaa-i. StaXvofievois, Koi to ttjs yjfvxjjs, OTiSfinoTe
ea-Tiv, cKflvo a-vvSia\v(Tai,, &c. — Dion. Halicar. Aul. Rom., 1. 8.

THE TRUE EELIGION. 251

retributions hereafter, nor no soul worth looking after,
but that which is common to other creatures ; — I must
confess (with Dr. More) ' it seems almost indifferent
whether any creature be, or no. Nor should I (with
dying Plato) thank my Genius for being a man, for my
country, birth, education, fortune, or that I was born
when so many wise men flourished. For, what is it to
have lived seventy years, wherein we have been dead, or
worse than dead, above two-third parts of them ? Sleep,
youth, age, and diseases, with a number of poor and
contemptible employments, swallow up at least so great
a portion, that as good, if not better is he, that never
was, than he that is, that hath but such a grace or
glimpse of passing life to mock him.

There can, therefore, be in God no design in making
of this world, which wiU prove worthy of so excellent a
goodness and wisdom, but the trial and probation of
man's immortal soul, which seems the deepest reach of
His counsel in the Creation ; and the Hfe of this world
but a prelude to one of longer duration, and larger cir-
cumference hereafter. And surely, as we have showed,
it is nothing else but the heavy load of this body ^ that
weighs down the mind from reaching to those supernal
hopes, that we may not say from a certain sense and
perception of that undisturbed state of Immortality.

But if a man's soul be once sunk by evil fate or de-
merit from a sense of this high and eternal truth into
that cold conceit, that the Original of All things does
lie either in shuffling chance, or in the stark roots of

' Philos. Poem Interp. Gen. 43-5. ^ Wisd., ix., 15.

252 THE TRUE RELIGION.

unknowing nature and brute necessity ; and that there is
nothing of extraordinary and divine, which discriminates
men from other creatures, besides their mechanism;
all the subtile chords of Reason, without the timely
recovery of that Divine touch within the hidden spirit
of man, will never be able to reduce and pull him back
out of that dreadful pit of Atheism and Infidelity. So
much better is innocence and piety, than subtle argu-
ment, and earnest and sincere devotion, than curious
disputes.

Da Pater augustam menti conscendere sedem,

Da fontem lustrare boni, da luce reperta

In Te conspicuos animi defigere visus :

Discute terrenae nebulas et pondera molis,

Atque tuo splendore mica : Tu namque Serenum ;

Tu requies tranquilla piis : Te cernere Finis,

Principium, Victor, Dux, Semita, Terminus idem.'

Grant, then, Great God, our thougbts may reach thy

throne.
Grant we the Fountain of all good may see ;
Grant that this blissful Light to us once known,
We may for ever fix our eyes on Thee :
Dispel this darkness, and these clogs remove.
And let Thy beams appear. For Thou art light ;
Thou art true rest, to those who do Thee love.
Beginning, End, both Way and Guide ; the sight
Of Thee is all Thy creatures can desire,
'Tis this alone to which our souls aspire.

' Boeth., lib. iii., Met. 9.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 253

CHAPTER IV.

SECTION I.
That if there be a god and sovereign being, who created

ALL things, he IS TO BE ADORED AND OBEYED BY HIS CREA-
TURES (especially by man the intellectual) with RELI-
GIOUS WORSHIP ; NOT ONLY AS HIS DUTY, BUT IN ORDER TO HIS
FUTURE STATE AND FELICITY.

That we have in the former chapters hitherto ex-
tended our discourse so prolixly, none ought to wonder
who shall duly consider the great importance of the
subjects, The Existence of God, and His Works ; espe-
cially as it more nearly concerns us, the immortal souls
of man, for whose use and contemplation they were
created in reference to his Maker's glory and His
creatures' weU-being. Since, that foundation steadily
laid, the superstruction and consequences must un-
doubtedly stand, and remain unshaken; namely, that,
since we can have no rational notion of The Deity,
without supposing Him to be of absolute perfection;
that He is benign, loving, bountiful, just, powerful,
wise, holy, and transcendently all this, He is and ought
to be adored, and absolutely obeyed by all His crea-
tures, especially by man, whom He has more eminently
endowed with reason and conscience of his duty, and

254 THE TRUE RELIGION.

capacitated to understand the benefits and happiness
which will accrae to him by it. For all perfections,
such as are in Almighty God, must needs challenge the
highest reverence and veneration.

It is certainly the greatest argument in the world
that those who receive being from another should sin-
cerely honour, serve, and obey that Being. Divine
adorations and recognition must, of necessity, and from
parity of reason, and nature of the thing, follow such
high obligations. And therefore it is not enough to
speak only of, and to know. His Godlike perfections,
and be sensible of His goodness, and other attributes ;
but to consider what our duty is, and to express it in
acts of obedience, worship, and gratitude for them.
This is so natural and just, as even the very Heathen
universally give their suffrages for it. Socrates, Plato,
Cato, Cicero, Seneca, all the philosophers, are Chris-
tians in this point without dispute.

Si Deus est animus, est pura mente colendus,'
even for the dignity of His nature, much more in regard
of our relation to Him as His creatures. Let us hear
how they speak the very sense, yea, the very words of
the Scripture. If God be a Father, we must obey
Him ; if our Master, serve Him. Plato caUs this in
plain terms Religion towards God.^ And so the Holy
Prophet, If I be a Father, where is mine honour, &c.

' " If God is a Spirit, we must worship Him with a pure mind."
' Let any man read his Epinomis, Alexander Aphrodiseus to

the same sense, and also Jamblicus, and generally all the Academics

with their Master.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 255

It were to swell a volume but to cite part even of
their sentences upon this topic' Histories of all na-
tions, civil or barbarous, agreeing in this matter, who,
for the worship of their gods, have built, endowed, and
consecrated places, times, persons, altars, temples, and
sacred rites, as not only books, but the yet remaining
ruins of their many temples, and statues, inscriptions,
and places of worship, proclaim ; where they sometimes
invoked their deities, sacrificed, prayed, performed their
vows, deprecated punishments, returned thanks for
benefits received, inquired after the will of their gods,
and the responses of their oracles. For, if we believe
that God is a rewarder of those who serve and obey
Him (as we have proved He is, from the nature and
efiects of His attributes), the very love of ourselves
would prompt us to implore the continuance of His
favours and kindness to us, even in this life! And
being convinced that it is in His power, not only to
bless us here, but make us happy hereafter, would
render us more devout, and solicitous to serve and
please Him, and to give Him the worship of reasonable
and intellectual creatures.

Fruition and the Supreme Good is doubtless the end
of every wise and considering person. And our true
feUcity consisting in the favour of God, who is the
bountiful Giver of all good, what should we not do to
obtain the bliss and felicity He is able to bestow upon

' Quis non timeat omnia providentem et cogitantem, et ani-
madvertentem, et omnia ad se pertinere putantem, curiosum ct
plenum negotii Deum ?

256 THE TRUE EELIGIOX.

His worshippers ? And this not only for reward merely,
or to avoid His displeasure, but in contemplation of His
Divine perfections, wherein is contained all that is
lovely and desirable, namely, the whole Creation itself ;
all Events and Providences; in a word, aU that can
perfect and consummate our natures, and make us
accepted. The worship and contemplation of God will
certainly be the most ravishing and delightful part of
our future and everlasting blessedness.

Antoninus has said many excellent things upon this
head, which may be brought for the conviction and
reproof of all negligent and indilFerent people. Join to
him Epictetus and others, where they show the love,
veneration, resignation, passive and active obedience,
which such excellencies, as are in the Deity, must needs
produce ; and what returns of service, love, and affec-
tion in us, the worshippers of Him ; striving to come
as near as we can to the Exemplar, in all those virtues
which any way contribute to His service ; and by en-
deavouring to understand His will, with all devotion,
sincerity, and exactness, because of His all-seeing
nature, and indefectible justice, to punish and reward.

The Gentile World, who but groped after this,
thought it so reasonable, that they esteemed nothing
precious enough, no pains, no charge, nothing busy
enough (though even to success and superstition) to
demonstrate their devotion, and the sense of this duty.
For this end did they offer so many expensive and
bloody victims, gums, and incense; and some even
themselves, and dearest relations ; not only to propitiate

THE TRUE RELIGION. 257

for them, but to testify their gratitude : as we mar read
of Jephtha, or Iphigenia of the heathen, the King of
Moab, the rites of Saturn, and innumerable other in-
stances. To these oblations they added prayers and
Eucahristical hymns, and what other expressions of
thankful hearts they could devise. Nor owe we less to
that Being, in whom we live and move. God being
the God of All, all are obliged to serve and adore Him.
"We owe ourselves to Him, who lends us ourselves to
ourselves, and those faculties which He requires the
service of, namely, our reason, nay, our very lives.

These are not institutions and arts of policy, but
Nature's dictates, and therefore delivered and con-
firmed by the impressions of reverence, which all men
feel and perceive within them, and with satisfaction,
when they perform their duties; uneasinesses, and
secret regret, when they neglect them. In short, all
the world is so convinced, in this universal practice,
that God is to be the object of our worship ; that, as
we have shown, it has been always proner to excess
and superstition, idolatry and unlawful worship, than to
atheism, or neglect of it. And if any there be who
seem to worship none, they are no more to be reckoned
among the number of human creatures, but of ill-
shapen monsters, and lumps of deformity, who neither
know how to reason, or reflect on what they should,
and draw consequences like men of reason ; or, lastly,
make no use of their reason, which is worse.

Epictetus, whom we named, is so convinced of this,
that he prescribes set offices, as it were ; and tells us

VOL. I. S

2y» THE TEUE EELIGION.

that prayers and praises, psalms and hymns, become all
our actions. For such we find especially among the
poets, though to their false deities, whose favour and
assistance they invoked at the entrance of most of their
works and undertakings. Jamblicus calls the oblations
of a sincere and pure mind the most acceptable wor-
ship; and so does Hierocles.' And though all this
was, we acknowledge, directed to false gods, yet it
denotes the reasonableness of it, and how universal and
natural. And hence we read, or hear, of no people or
nation, even to the last and utmost discoveries of the
habitable world, but what pay some regard and worship
to a superior being, whom they either love and invoke
for good things, or deprecate for evil. God Almighty
seeming rather to connive at their superstition than
suffer them to neglect a duty so reasonable and so
natural. They worshipped, though they knew not
what ; nor do we find them so much reproved for the
duty as for their ignorance and blindness in not direct-
ing it to the right object, and in a right manner.
Wherefore, '• if God," says Plato, " be to be worshipped
and served, let us make our addresses to God, and
inquire how He will be served." How much more,
then, are Christians obliged to this duty, and to that
of gratitude, whom God has prevented with the
knowledge and understanding of His wiU in this par-
ticular !

' See Proclus's excellent Treatise, the devout ejaculations of
Simplicius, the behaviour of dying Socrates, recommending his
expiring soul, with other virtuous and illustrious heathen.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 259

Here, then, we conclude this chapter; the conse-
quences of the titles being so perspicuous, that, if there
be such a God and Sovereign Being as we have de-
scribed, who has created, sustained, and provides for
all ; and that, in order to a future, more happy or un-
happy state. He is to be revered by all, with all humble,
religious, and sincere worship. And what that is will
be our next inquiry.

260 THE TRUE RELIGION.

CHAPTER V.

SECTION I. RELIGION.
SECTION II. RELIGIOUS WORSHIP.
SECTION in. NATURAL RELIGION.
SECTION IV. CONSCIENCE.
SECTION V. THEISTS.
SECTION VI. ATHEISTS.

SECTION I. EELIGION.

Religion, as being the highest reason, is that alone
which makes mankind to differ from brute animals ;
because it renders him like his great Creator, rectifying
the depravity of his nature, which, if uncultivated by
religion, becomes fierce and sensual. But religion and
the sense of a deity, or some transcendently excellent
being, purifies the soul, and refines our nature by virtue
of its precepts ; there being no creature besides that
can actually and intentionally address its powers and
faculties to God. Wherefore, to be religious is more
truly the formal distinction between men and beasts,
than all that the philosophers have furnished to its
definition;' and, therefore, more adequate to his cha-
racter than either polity, society, risibility, without
' Animal Keligionis capax.

THE TRUE RELIGIOIf. 261

which he were no reasonable creature, but a mere
brute, the very worst of the kind. There is, indeed,
among brute animals, some imperfect traces of all the
perfections and qualities of man, excepting that of
religion. But, with all this, they apprehend neither
God, angel, or intelligence. And, therefore, Gesner,
I remember, concludes that pigmies (those diminutive
people, or sort of apes or satyrs, so much resembling
the little men storied under that name), are, therefore,
not of human race, because they have no rehgion.

It is true that all entities and beings whatsoever love
that which is good, and does them good. And, as
David says, there is none good but God ; and, therefore,
those who love good do, consequently, love God, meta-
physically speaking ; and the love of God being the
sum of all religion, all who love that which is good are
religious. But, if this love of good flows not from an
intellectual principle, it is not properly reUgion, which
is among all nations and people competent only to man-
kind;' that is, such an impression as enables him to
offer the Deity a rational and spiritual worship.

" AVe know," says that excellent person,^ " much of
the courage and boldness of lions, horses, and other
animals ; but we hear nothing of their justice, equity,
and beneficence, and the rest of the moral virtues. And
why? They are void of reason ;" and, therefore, pre-
tend not to that sublime and radiant beam of an intel-

' Ex tot generibus nullum esse animal praeter hominem, quod
habeat notitiam aliquam Dei. — Cic. de Leg. i.
' Cicero de Offic, lib. i.

262 THE TRUE RELIGION.

lectual agent to qualify them for contemplation and
notions abstracted from matter, and to reflect and pro-
ceed analytically from effects to causes, and, therefore,
are incapable of science (the product of ratiocination),
and of the consequences resulting from the premises by
inference of the conclusion, induction from universals to
particulars, genus, species, and other dialectical notions
and methods.

The prayers and ejaculations which parrots have
been taught to utter, nay, to recite whole psalms,
creeds, and litanies (as did that of Cardinal Ascanio,'
and others were used to do) is aU but impertinent
prate, without relation to time or place ; and what they
say, fantastical and wholly inconsistent, such as they
learn by rote, by drops and little fragments,^ working
on their airy fancies ; nor springs it from any perennial
fountain of their own, and, therefore, stops and soon
becomes dry. The hke may be affirmed of those other
creatures, who have been made to curse and bless (as
they term it) themselves ; to kneel, and use other reve-
rent gesticulations (of which, above all other, popish
legends abound). They are not to be reckoned for
acta of religion, but the effects of pure art, and of theii'
masters and instructors. They do not proceed from
any interior principle, as they do in man. But I needed
not, perhaps, so long to have insisted on this.

^ Rhodog., 1. 3, c. 32.

- Neque quid dicunt scientes, neque ea quas dicunt, temporibus
locisve accommodate dicentes; sed linguam duntaxat ad prsestitutum
numerum agitantes. — ApoUon., 1. i.

THE TELE RELIGION. 263

"WTierefore, we return to show what religion is:
namely, the most immediate tie between God and His
creature, obliging to a certain law and rule, for the
government of his life and actions. Wherefore, Plu-
tarch calls it the very cement of society, the foundation
of all legislation ; and that a city had better be without
houses, inhabitants, and walls, as without religion ; it
being generally observed, that those countries ^nd com-
monwealths have been most flourishing and happy
which have been the most religious ; as was the Roman
empire whilst religiously observing their simple rites of
piety, the duties of justice, fideUty, and other moral
virtues ;' whereas, the ruin and decadence of kingdoms
and dominions followed, as they degenerated by atheism,
profaneness, sensuality, injustice, and other vices. The
same is remarkable of particular persons and families.
" Take away religion," says TuUy, " and truth, fidelity,
justice, and all commerce between man and mankind
wUl come to nothing." And, therefore, religion and
the service of God is the main and important business
of our life. For so the wise king, after he had made
experiments and considered all things, concludes that this
is the whole duty of man.'' Keligion is the intercourse
between heaven and earth, God and man, by which he
is pleased to manifest Himself more especially to us,
both for His glory and our good ; as we find by the

• Under the heathen emperors, for instance, Hadrian, Severus,
Antoninus, M. Aurelius; under the Christian, Constantine, Theo-
dosius, &c.

- Eccles., xii., 13.

264! THE TKUE RELIGION.

gracious effects of His continual bounty. The prin-
cipal end in rational beings consisting in communion
with, and conformity to, the Sovereign Good, which is
God ; and that communion no otherwise obtained and
preserved but by religion only, should, above aU things,
be our chiefest aim. In a word, religion consists in our
piety to God, sobriety to ourselves, justice and righteous-
ness to 6ur neighbour; or, as St. James, more excel-
lently, "Pure religion and undefiled is to visit the
fatherless and widow ;" that is, by acts of charity and
mercy, to keep ourselves unspotted from the world.

Thus, rehgion qualifies the Christian, and enlarges
the understanding, enabling us to discern beyond the
narrow confines and scantling of brutish sense and
stupid ignorance; to behold and contemplate things
invisible and supernatural. And thiscreates an habi-
tual reverence to some Superior Being, more excellent
than ourselves, and incites us to such devotion and
services as we apprehend to be most agreeable to His
nature. And this, since it cannot be performed without
some rites and solemnities, lies in a system of all those
mysteries, which concern the knowledge and service of
the Deity to be worshipped, and in that manner and
way alone He prescribes. And that,' being under the
necessity of a future state, and sensible of the present
needs, we may thereby conciliate the Divine favour, for
the continuance of His protection and prosperity.

Maximus Tyrius makes this difference betwixt reli-
gion and superstition, that the religious person has
access to God without servile fear, opposed to filial

THE TRUE RELIGION. 265

reverence, which is mingled with love ; and calls the
:)ious man, the Friend of God, and the superstitious, a
nere flatterer of Him. And indeed those pagans wor-
shipped their deities in horror and cruel dread; and,
;herefore, sought all possible ways to pacify them, by
lattering, and pompous shows, processions, and carrying
ibout their images, washings, purifications, corporal
ieverities, whippings, burnings, and cuttings of their
lesh; prostituting their wives and daughters, and
cruelly sacrificing their children oftentimes, with a
;housand prodigious impieties and troublesome methods.
This was not religion in the true notion, but super-
itition ; or, if you will, false religion, as hereafter we
shall come to show. Religion amongst the wiser
leathen was far from this. It was to do nothing un-
jecoming a reasonable nature, or molest the civil
jowers; and to restrain all exorbitant passions and
ippetites ; though, indeed, it did not give those checks
;o the mind, and form in the best of them those noble
[ualities and perfections, which the true religion only
caches, and enables her votaries to do.

SECTION II. KELIGIOUS WORSHIP.
What it is, we have partly shown in the former sec-
ion, namely, the worship and adoration of the Deity,
iperating practically and sincerely; that we believe
nd rely on what we worship as our sovereign good,
rom whom we expect both present and future happi-
icss ; or, as others, it is an awful regard of God, as a

266 THE TEUE KELIGION.

punisher of vice, and rewarder of virtue; whose
perfections produce the love and imitation of His
vy^orshipper.

Wherefore all religion and its worship consists in
these two things :

1. Credenda.

2. Facietida.^

The first respects the true knowledge of God : the
second, how He is to be worshipped and served. The
one has regard to the law, the other to the gospel, as
faith, prayer, good works. Then, as to credenda of the
being of God, &c., we have at large made out: the
facienda wiU follow in its due place. ^

Now, though none, save man, do worship God after
an intellectual manner, yet do all creatures, yea, even
the most insensible and inanimate, speak the praises of
the Deity, in their operations, virtue, power, and several
courses. And, therefore, holy David calls upon them
all to magnify Him for ever. But, to speak more par-
ticularly, religious worship is the duty and service
which the creature, particularly man, pays to the
Superior Power, be it by prayer, confession, praises,
thanksgiving, sacrifices, kneeling, prostrations, humilia-
tions, for the obtaining or preserving some good thing,
or deprecating evil. And the rites and ceremonies of
these are so many and various, that what should be
natural, solemn, and rational, is, through the corruption

' " Matters of Belief." " Matters of Practice."
^ Chapters vii., viii., x., xii.

THE TKUE RELIGION'. 267

if our nature, and the cunning of Satan, and his lying
pirits, turned in most places to superstition. Xot that
11 ceremonious worship is evil, when the heart accom-
)anies the action, seeing some rites and outward usages
,re highly necessary for the exciting and stirring up our
nward devotions. But where they make the outward
leremonies of worship the main of the religious service,
is seeking to conciliate the Deity, and expiate sins by
drtue of the work done. It were endless to enumerate
he several manners of the worship which the blinded
vorld paid to their gods, idols, and heroes ; their sacri-
ices, libations, aspersions, festivities ; and after what
mpious and ridiculous sort they performed abundance
)f their religious services, as they occur to us in Dio-
iorus, the Sicilian, and other profane histories. And
indeed it would be hard to find any sort of people who
pretended any religion, but took care of some external
solemnities, and the decent circumstance of its worship ;
and therefore we find so many temples, oratories, altars,
and groves, — so many statues and shrines, set up in the
world, — so many dedicated persons of both sexes,
priests, priestesses, vestal nuns, flamens, augurs, and
the like, to manage their devotions.

SECTION III. NATUKAL RELIGION, OE THEOLOGY.

Now, since the soul of man is sensible how she

governs and informs the body, she cannot but resolve,

that some Spirit or Being it is which rules the universe,

and, consequently, the Soul herself: and, therefore.

268 THE TRUE RELIGION.

that Being ought to be regarded, worshipped, and
obeyed. And this, certainly, from a natural and in-
delible, as well as rational, principle, partly written in
our hearts, together with those necessary dictates,
without which there can be no reKgion, or rule of living
in the world; such as the equity of doing to others
what we would have done to ourselves, reverence to
our parents and elders, affection to our children, grati-
tude to benefactors, and the like. To these add the
accusations of conscience upon the committing of some
unnatural crime, or injustice, &c., whereby those natural
duties are violated. Not to insist at present on the
Divine laws, Mosaical or Christian, but on those which
are moral and immutable ; namely, such duties and
actions as proceed from a rational creature, voluntarily
and freely teaching us to adore our Maker and Bene-
factor.

It is this moral or natural religion which the very
heathen thought worthy of them, as men, to be paid to
the Divinity : and that the offenders against it should
be punished with the severest evils. Murder, adul-
teries, perjury, and the like crimes were amongst them
all detested; and, consequently, humanity, chastity,
temperance, sincerity, and other virtues, were to be
cherished and rewarded. Piety to the gods, and sacri-
fice, were of the same estimation. In a word, the
entire Decalogue seems to be the law and religion of
Nature herself, not one commandment of either table
excepted. Nor this without the wonderful and special
Providence of the Great God; since, without some

THE TEUE EELIGION. 269

iward and natural law of right and wrong, good and
vil, the state even of Nature itself (as it concerns
lankind) had long since lapsed, and sunk into con-
iision. Had there been no justice to j)unish, and
eward, — no inward coercion of the magistrate to re-
train exorbitances, how could any government have
ubsisted ? Wherefore, mankind was always under a
aw ; even before God made any extraordinary promid-
;ation of a law, man was a law to himself. His duty
pas written on his mind, that God might judge the
vorld in righteousness, since where there is no law
here is no transgression.' The main duties of piety
owards God, and justice towards man, &c., being duties
nscribed on the tables of our very hearts. And we
'eel a secret obligation to them within ourselves, ap-
proving or condemning what we do. And this is what
[ caU Natural Religion, or the Light of Nature. Not
;hat it is not as much the law and ordinance of God, as
(vhat He has revealed ; nor does Divine Revelation at
ill extinguish the light of Nature, which is Reason : but
xpproves and gives sanction to it.

Now, the nature of man consists in four degrees of
perfection :

1. Of being.

2. Of living.

3. Of animality.

4. Of rationality.

Of all which, the last alone concerns the supreme
and sovereign good of man. For, supposing him put
' Kom., iv., 15.

270 THE TRUE EELIGION.

into the world to exist, and only be in it, what needed
he any other life than that of a stone or tree ? If only
to live, what necessity of understanding ? And if to
exercise its animal functions, what need of reason ?

To what, then, can the nature of man be ordained
(all other beings in the world attaining their perfec-
tions and utmost end), than to exercise his reason upon
^ch objects as are proper to it ? And, seeing it does
not consist in vain and speculative studies, gratifying
the sensual part and brutish passions, it must be in
studying to know himself, and to acknowledge, that He
who made him, and endowed him with such advantages
above the other creatures, and on whom aU things de-
pend, is worthy of his service and obedience, by living
soberly, justly, and charitably, and by imitating those
perfections which bring him to the nearest similitude of
his Maker. Religion, therefore, is the ultimate and
most natural scope, to which mankind is ordained by
God. And that this is implanted in him by Nature,
the consequences evince ; since it is so natural to love
and acknowledge those who love and do us good. And
if so in man to man, much more from man to God, our
bountiful Patron and Benefactor.

Man is made for society, that in society he may
serve and worship God ; and then, if interest unite, the
benefits aU perpetually receive from Heaven should
unite and tie us faster to Him. If fear (according to
the Hobbian doctrine) should be the only object of our
service, whom should we serve but God, since He is
only to be feared ? Man is not considered as a mere

THE TRUE RELIGION. 271

engine of polity, as that bold assertor would pretend,
discarding all religion, natural justice, and charity, and
giving the Supreme Deity no other dominion over, or
title to, his creature, but power and tyranny! The
love and service we call religion is what proceeds from
an ingenuous and free agent, governed by the highest
reason.

Some have believed the law of Nature so strong and
efficacious, as to oblige us, though there were no such
being as God. But we have abundantly proved there
is a God, Author of Nature, and of aU things else,
though there were at all no law of Nature. Hobbs,
indeed (as we said) puts all mankind into a state of hos-
tility, and affirms that there Is nothing naturally just
or unjust at all; which utterly vacates and abolishes all
Deity at once ; and then is all law but the constitution
of man, nature having nothing to do in the legislation.
But mutual peace, kindness, love, and gratitude, being
certainly the intention of the lawgiver, for the preser-
vation of community, sufficiently overthrow the bold
pseudo-philosopher's new suggestion, and necessarily
infer a virtuous and religious life, separate from his
state of war and rapine. If we allow a law of nature,
we must acknowledge Him that made that law.

Suppose a poor deserted infant, born and abandoned
in some desert place, nourished (as they feign of Komu-
lus and Cyrus) by some savage beast, this child, grown
a man, would have some religion, some fear or appre-
hension of another Being. For, first, as a man, he
would love society, and join to others like him, though

272 THE TRUE RELIGION.

he never saw man before, as naturally disposed to love
his like. Naturally also he would love his own child,
if he had one; would be pleased with a good and
friendly turn ; and, though all these good dispositions
were obscured for a whUe, for want of objects to exer-
cise them on, yet would they manifest and exert them-
selves, so soon as he came into company. The same
we may affirm of natural rehgion. Such a person
would, perhaps, have little conscience of remorse, be-
cause he never had occasion of hurting any body, or
opportunity of doing good. The maxims of justice,
and other virtues, would not appear, for the same
defect of occasion. Nay, perhaps, he would be so
stupid as to reflect on nothing, yet it is certain he
would have some rehgion, as soon as his common sense
began to revive, and to be cultivated; for he would
then naturally reason that the objects and things he
daily saw did not make themselves, and that what did
not so was some great power and virtue. Thus Nature
herself teaches us there is a God: and we invoke His
help in distress and adversities. Men, naturally, (savage
as some nations are) lift their hands and eyes to Heaven,
to implore relief from thence. Nor does diversity of
religions destroy aU this uniform and general principle,
which disposes to religion. And even superstition itself
supposes a natural reverence to some God, else it
could not subsist ; for superstition is no other than na-
tural rehgion applied to a false and erroneous object

The confession of a God is natural to man, not as he
is a living creature, but a rational creature. And it is

THE TRUE RELIGION. 273

not from blind matter, but evidence of reason, and the
dictates of conscience, which, tells us, however we may-
attempt to suppress it, that certain actions are in them-
selves essentially evil, and that evil deserves punish-
ment, and that the inflicting of punishment appertains
to God only, because He best knows the degrees and
obliquity of our faults. And hence results fear of bciny;
reproved for them. Of this nature are disobedience tn
parents, treachery to friends, blasphemy, ingratitude,
and other crimes worthy chastisement: and this nature,
not education, as some fondly imagine, teaches. Educa-
tion may indeed direct our natural inclinations, and
passions, even to unnatural objects ; but can no more
make them new, than it can make a new soul. We
may possibly excite some seemingly new inclination or
passion, which, for lying still and dormant before, appears
to be new, because, till now, perhaps we had no sense of
it. But to put wholly any such new passion in us
were to create new powers and faculties in our souls,
which is not to be done.

Now there is none so strong and invincible as man's
inclination to religion, and the worshipping sometliing
as God. Natural inclinations operate necessarily, and
it is to that we owe the universal consent of owning
some Deity. But, in a state of nature, mankind was
to receive its directions concerning the true object and
nature of their religious worship from natural reason ;
which, if they made good use of, would certainly direct
to the worsliip of one God.

Asrain, though we have all this reason and evidence

VOL. I. T

27 i THE TRUE EELIGION.

to prove religious duties to be natural, we have yet
clivers passions in us repugnant to our reason. But he
who shall affirm we have no natural obHgation to obey
the guidance of our reason, being reasonable creatures,
were to argue hke a fool. Now, since the righteous
God cannot be author of those csal passions and incli-
nations in us, as being contrary to His holy nature,
many crimes committed here, and good things done,
whilst neither of them be punished or rewarded here,
natural reason tells us that there is a judgment to come
hereafter, which will reward every one according to his
merits.

That there are crimes against the light of Nature
(whatever some pretend upon the score of education,
and political laws, to keep men in subjection) such as
sacrilege, adultery, parricide, blasphemy, preposterous
lusts, and the like enormous villanies, we find all men
and nations universally agree, as in principles of nature,
and not of custom and education. For man being born
for society and mutual help, such crimes would cer-
tainly destroy it ; and being obliged to foUow reason,
that reason forbids such wickednesses as are destructive
to it, and, consequently, to man's nature. There is
therefore a prime and fundamental law enjoining every
man, namely. Reason, which natm-ally distinguishes
betwixt good and evil, as the basis of all government,
and discipline whatsoever. These are eternal princi-
ples natural and true, and never alter, nor ever was
there a time when they were not so. Justice, temperance,
natural afiection, sincerity, gratitude, and the like, need

THE TRUE RELIGION. 2/;)

not the help of education to recommend them to all
mankind. Nor need we be taught that we should suffer
a small and trifling loss, for the obtaining a greater
benefit. Self-preservation, and the love of ourselves,
prompt us to these with no other mistress than Nature.
The same teaches that drunkenness and intemperance
is a shameful vice, that ingratitude is base, that we
ought to revere our parents, love our wives and chil-
dren, reward the labourer and those who do us cour-
tesies — in a word, do as we would be done by. And
when we do the contrary, something there is within,
wliich flies in our faces, and we fear the Divine
Nemesis, or Revenge, which proves a natural atrocity
in such like actions, and does not proceed from those
customary prejudices, from which some pretend they
spring.

The universal custom of sacrificing throughout the
world, in all times and generation?, was an actual con-
fession that sin deserved death, and that the Divine jus-
tice required punishment or satisfaction. Nor is it to
be shown that it ever proceeded from any Divine reve-
lation or command, but from a very principle of Nature,
as it were ; though indeed the rites and ceremonies
about it were prescribed afterwards to the Jews. And
something there is in it of extraordinary, that the very
heathen should think that the oflfended gods should be
pleased or appeased by the death of an innocent crea-
ture's blood, and doubtless the reason of Holocausts, and
other sacrifices by fire, did signify that no expiation
could be without combustion of the whole or part ;

T 2

276 THE TRUE RELIGION.

since one man, offending another, was commonly the
object of revenge, even amongst men.

Naturally, they worshipped such beings and things,
as either they received most good and benefit from, or
were most in fear of. And hence sprung their worship
and adoration of the Sun, Moon, Heavenly Orbs and
Constellations; Jupiter for Rain, Ceres for Corn,
Bacchus for Wine, Esculapius for health, and the rest.
The Egyptian and Grecian theology was a kind of
astrological magic, founded on the hypothesis of their
demons, and the heavens, which they thought they
governed. Not that they believed the slum wrought
any such stupendous effects, or impregnated their
talismans, by their proper virtue; but as they were
intelligences themselves, or divinely influenced, and
directed by the spirits residing in them, and ruHng
part of the inferior world. They fancied the sun a
kind of archangel, and some called it the organ or in-
strument of God, the Divine harp, whose harmony set
in motion the rest of the celestial bodies.

Nor naturally did they worship their idols, at first, as
true gods, but as symbols only, and representations of
such as they loved, and esteemed themselves obliged to.
For it was not possible he who carved a piece of stupid
wood, or the like inactive material, into the figure of a
man, should beUeve that could help him in time of
adversity, which, being set in a niche or hole, could not
preserve itself from rotting, being burned, or stolen
away. But it was process of time, and false principles,
which (as we have showed) depraved and corrupted the

THE TKUE RELIGION. 277

after age. From venerating the pictures and images
of their fathers and benefactors, they fell to deifying
of them, and then Avas there no end of their supersti-
tion. But this was the corruption of natural religion,
which induced men to worship the great Creator, from
the contemplation of the fabric of the aspectable world,
the regular course of the heavenly bodies, and the
goodly economy of the universe. And certainly this
was of all other the most rational and natural, and,
being accompanied with a sincere and moral life, did
come the nearest to the true motive of worship.

But how far one may go in religion, by natural light
only, is by no means to be relied on, though the wise
and virtuous Pagans were charitably thought of by
some even of the Christian Fathers (before their hot
disputes against the Pelagians) and the modern Jews.
Doubtless, so far, as to rise in judgment against those,
who have had the full meridian light to guide them,
and have obstinately shut their eyes, because they loved
darkness more than light. Wherefore we leave them
to their own master. How God may deal with these
delirious Heathen, we are not to judge, only this is
certain, that none are saved but through the merits
of Jesus.'

From all that has been said, it is evident that reli-
gion is so necessary, and so natural to the well-being of
the world, and so rational, that even a false religion,
conscientiously practised, were better than none ; and
that such as have been the most pious and religious

' See a Treatise on Pagan Philosophy, by Francis de la Mothe.

278 THE TRUE EELIGION.

have been blessed with many temporal things, and the
contemners of even the false gods, and holy things de-
dicated to them, never prospered, as may appear by
innumerable instances of sacrilege and profaneness,
perjury, &c., which have been signally punished.

Besides that, religion, above all, conduces to the en-
larging and regulating our faculties, and rendering us
invariably happy and tranquil. And that it really
gives a man a kind of participation of the Divine Nature,
exalting the understanding, regulating the will, cohibit-
ing and restraining the passions, governing our appetites,
and producing a self-satisfaction unspeakable, makes us
easy to ourselves and others, fiUs the soul with joy at its
present condition, and contemplation of the future, gives
him a steady assurance, and serenity of mind, what-
soever happens of change or vicissitude in this world.
In a word, religion is all kind of felicity. It renders
a man debonair, gentle, patient, charitable, and easily
reconcileable — top-full of inward joy and complacency.
So true is that of the philosopher. True joy consists
not in raillery and loud laughter, but in a placid and
sober cheerfulness.'

SECTION IV. CONSCIENCE.
Conscience, as a part of natural religion, is God's su-
preme tribunal, erected in every man's breast, and is that
little consistory of the Soul, as Philo calls it; and, as Anto-
ninus,2 the voice of God, the domestic deity ; where He

' On this, see the most excellent and pious Dr. Barrow.
' "EvojKor eeor. — Anton., lib. iii.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 279

keeps a perpetual sessions — where, as God's Vicegerent
in the minor world, he accuses, judges, executes, to
punish, reward, and crown, according to our deserts.

It is His spy and intelligencer — monitor and recorder,
and a thousand witnesses, from whom none can abscond
himself, none can fly. She is the very image by which
man represented his Maker in innocence ; and so abso-
lutely necessary for the conduct of our lives, and main-
taining the dignity of our nature, that without her we
should degenerate below that of brutes — be more savage
and indomitable. In a word, conscience is the supreme
reason — the highest act of the practical intellect, and
may be said as much to constitute the definition of
man, as any thing which distinguishes him from the
beasts that perish. Not that it implies any distinct
faculty in the soul, by which we comprehend those
natural notions concerning good and evil, by a com-
pound act of reason ; but that which seems to be a cer-
tain innate habit, or active principle, radicated in the
very being and constitution of things themselves, with-
out any dependence on custom, positive laws, and sanc-
tions; namely, a law written on our hearts, to which
not only all our actions but all our thoughts are ac-
countable. ' She is an intellectual memory of what our
reason dictates ; and does accordingly elect, examine,
accuse, convict, excuse, absolve, or determine absoKitely,
and without partiaUty. She is stiU the same in soli-
tude or in company, at home and abroad, by night and
by day ; she goes abroad with us, returns home with
' Rom., ii., 15.

280 THE TRUE RELIGION.

lis. She thrusts herself into all societies, all business ;
is privy to our most secret recesses and designs, pries
into our closets. There is no charm, no bribe, no chain
able to bind her ; no sense of the body so nicely tender.
She is the very eye of the rational soul ; the least mote
or dust grieves and offends her; nor is she ever at
peace till it be cast out. And to this most absolute
despot on earth was all mankind obliged, even before
there was made any external revelation, or promulga-
tion of other law. Nor to any creature was it else pre-
scribed, because man only was endowed with reason
and self-reflection.

The characters inscribed in conscience are indelible ;
no tyrant could ever silence her. She is the boldest
tiling in nature ; clamorous to eternity, tiU she be heard
and satisfied : nor lies there any just appeal from her
tribunal. And though she may sometimes possibly err,
and be misguided, sometimes clouded, and, for a time,
in a kind of slumber, the least noise awakes her, and
then she barks afresh, and stings like a thousand scor-
pions. In sum. Conscience, as TertuUian,' truly calls
her, is the most irrefragable and convincing argument
that there is a just and righteous God, whom we are
religiously to worship ; and that, however Atheists and
wicked men may hector it for the time, and seem to bear it
out, the wound remains. "Manet alta mente repostum."^

God Almighty never bestowed a more divine and ex-

' De Anima.

''' " Deep graven in her heart the wound remains."

Dryden's Virgil.

THE TEUE RELIGION. 281

cellent gift on mortal man:' not only in the sense of
Christian men, but by the suffrages of the wisest
Heathen, as, besides others,^ Cicero, above all the rest,
has shown in that incomparable piece, his Offices, which
I hold to be one of the best books of Cases of Conscience
that was ever published, after the sacred Scriptures.
Would that our young gentlemen did study well that
book ! (to say nothing of Seneca, Antoninus, Epictetus,
Plutarch, &c.) it might show them there was such a
thing as religion and natural conscience, directing men
to the virtues of piety and justice, before there was any
revelation, as is made manifest to us by a singular and
peculiar grace. For St. Paul has intimated as much as
this to the proselyte Romans — " Because" (speaking of
the Pagan world) " that which may be known of God
is manifested in them, for God has showed it to them :
namely, things invisible by things visible, the creation
of the world manifesting His power and Deity, so that
they are without excuse.^ For when the Gentiles,
which have not the positive law," (as the Jews had, by
extraordinary revelation) "do by nature the things con-
tained in the law, these having not the law, are a law,
or religion to themselves, which show the work of the
law written in their hearts ; their conscience also bear-
ing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing
or else excusing one another."''

' Nihil homini dedit Deus ipse divinius. Lact. De Ver. Cult.,
1. ii., c. 24.

^ Euripides, Seneca, Plutarch. Cic. Offic, 1. 3 ; Juv. Sat. 13.
' Rom., i., 19, 20. * Kom., ii., 14-16.

282 THE TRUE RELIGION.

To conclude : the law of Nature is as much the law
of God as what is revealed ; seeing it teaches us those
virtues and religious precepts, without which no re-
ligion will bring us to happiness; inasmuch (as we
showed) even some of the more charitable Fathers and
devout men, as Justin Martyr, Clemens Alexandrinus,
St. Chrysostom, and others, had favourable thoughts
of the salvation even of some virtuous Pagans, living
according to the light of nature. Let us leave them to
the infinite mercies of God, whose ways are in the dark
abyss, and who will have mercy, on whom He will have
mercy ; though upon none without the influence and
merit of a Saviour ; nor to us is there any other name
given under Heaven by wliich we may be saved, as we
shall come to show in due place. Waving, then, all
revelation for the present, let us hear the Theist.

SECTION V. THEISTS.
Many, to whom all religions are alike, are forced,
from the invincible power of natural reason, to confess
that there is a God, and that he is to be worshipped
with rational adoration. Something, of necessity, must
be first and eternal ; otherwise, never could any thing
have been which is. And He who made all could have
no matter which He did not make : for, if any thing
was made, which He did not make, then He did not
make all. But something did make all : nor can any
thing make itself, for then it must be before itself, which
were absurd. If there had ever been nothing, or no
cause, nothing could ever have been : something, there-

THE TRUE RELIGION. 283

tore, must be, that never was made — some dMcfives self-
originated, and eternal ; and, therefore, whatever diffi-
culties there may be in the notion of an Eternal Being,
something eternal must be acknowledged. And much
more obvious and rational is the notion of a First Cause,
than to constitute either matter, or the universe itself,
eternal.

To say that Nature made all things, is to say that
God did make all. Nature is, otherwise, a thing that
does not know, but acts by the direction and appoint-
ment of something which does; and, therefore, our
Hobbists and new philosophers are pleased, or rather
forced, to allow God an understanding, perceptive ex-
istence, though, withal, that He does all things arbi-
trarily, without any rule or nature of goodness, justice,
and the Hke. Indeed, God does not aU things imme-
diately in the productions which we daily behold, but
He governs the motion of matter, and what we call
Nature, to the form designed. And though that Nature
do no more comprehend the reason of what it does, nor
the end wherefore, yet she acts regularly to that end,
guided, as she is, by a mental causality.

The Cartesians teU us that there is no such thing as
substantial life any where ; and that even human vo-
lition Is mechanically produced from certain effluvia and
exuvious membranes, as It were. They will not endure
any scale or degree of entities, lest they should find a
link or chain which should bring them to a First Being.

In the mean time, to imagine that a gross body —
tossed and jumbled up and down, and beaten to an in-

284 THE TEUE RELIGION.

visible dust, should be pounded and sifted into ration-
ality, wisdom, a vastly understanding soul, and invent
such arts and sciences, performing such admirable effects
— were to debase mankind to the utmost degree of
credulous folly. That chance, which never yet com-
posed any thing, should make the most admirable of all
the works of God! Socrates, Plato, Cicero, and the
rest, believed that God created the world, though hold-
ing matter to be eternal; supposing three things in
God, matter, idea, and the divine conception. But
matter, doubtless, as well as what was educed out of it,
was made by God; and He who created spirits and
substances immaterial (for out of what pre-existent
matter could He make them?) could certainly create
matter out of nothing — nothing, at least, which we see
or can conceive, nor out of any thing which He did not
make ; as our blessed Saviour effected miracles by a word
only, without any dependence on matter. Nothing is
made of nothing, therefore, as to our sensible compre-
hensions ; which yet may be understood by abstracted
notions of reason, seeing we are ignorant of infinite
possible powers and possibilites. We daily see and con-
template works of His power, not how He operates,
Opera ipsius videntur oculis; quomodh illafecerit ne mente
quidem mdentur, as Lactantius elegantly.

Matter, therefore, doubtless, as well as the things
made out of matter, was created by God, who, in making
matter, made aU things: seeing the things made are
only through the modification of matter, but not by for-
tuitous and epicurean chance. This established, safely

THE TRUE RELIGION. 285

might the first philosophers affirm nothing ready made
but matter.' Wherefore, says St. Basil, God was not
only the inventor of the scheme and figure, but Maker
of Nature herself.^

Again, what the artificer is to the work of art, the
same is the Creator of all thino;s to the universal works
of nature ; though, by the same means, which are the
testimonies of the creature, we are led to that inde-
pendent Being which made and maintains them. This
is a prime notion of a God ; not from the ratiocination
of a few illuminated ones, but the sense and argument
of those who subdued all the then discovered world,
namely, the Romans, who are reported to have found
no atheists among all their conquered nations. So that,
if any of them there were who professed no religion, it
does not follow they own no god ; though perhaps they
denied His providence, as did the Epicureans. And, if
any others there be, they are so very few and incon-
siderable, as cannot amount to the least prejudice of the
truth. And whether at some time or other they appre-
hend nothing, is very doubtful, or rather, there is no
doubt at all but they do, the principle of a deity being
so universally obvious.

To approach still nearer the light, whether of nature
or obscure revelation, we find the most cautious of the
heathen philosophers, Hermes himself, naming one God,
Father, Principle, Creator of all things, ascribing eter-
nity to Him, and divers other Divine attributes ; for

' Arist. Phys., i., 8 ; Metaph., 1.
' S. Basil. Hexam, 1. ii., c. 1.

286 THE TEUK RELIGION.

which he acknowledges all worship due to Him. To
the same effect, also, Zoroaster, out of whom sorae
would produce no obscm'e glimmerings of an early
notion, among the heathen, of a Trinity. And such
expressions are so clear and frequent in Trismegistus,
that one would be astonished at the spirit and majesty
of his writings, especially when he treats of the nature
and works of God.' And the sect of the Pythagorean
Gymnosophists, as the Brahmins of this day, retain
abundance of this. Likely it is, I confess, that Pytha-
goras might learn something from the Jews, among
whom he so long conversed ; but certainly he could not
have that of three Deities, which was the religion of his
particular sect. And yet, such a notion it seems they
had, though in another place he owns but one, whom
he styles All in All, Origo, Mens, Vita, kc.^

Nor is it only among these we have a Deity plaialy
acknowledged, but His Divine attributes also. He is
called Father of the world, the only Essential Being,
with other scriptural expressions. The like we meet
with in Jamblicus, speaking of the unity and power,
whence he derives an argument for the silent and spi-
ritual adoration due to God; as both Proclus, Simplicius,
and even Porphyry himself acknowledge; especially

' It is true that this work is suspected to be of a much later date ;
but, for my part, I never could find the man who challenged it from
him, and it is questionless so ancient, as we hardly guess when it
was written.

^ To this accord Parmenidas, Empedocles, Xenophon, Hierocles,
Thales, Anaxagoras, Timseus, and many others.

THE TEUE RELIGION. 287

Plotinus, and generally those of the Academy. When-
ever, says Plato, I mention but one God only, take
what I say for good earnest.' This, it seems, was the
test in those days. And it is observable how he advises
his disciples to search after the MovdSa, which Pythagoras
calls the prime. And, indeed, they did not familiarly
name more, whatever, out of depraved custom and
popular use, they now and then spake with the vulgar.
Yet, as Tertulllan affirms, even in their ordinary dis-
course and communication, they seldom named above
one God, always looking up to heaven.

But it were a superfluous undertaking, in an age so
well acquainted with their writings, to recite all that
might be collected out of these Deists, especially the
Platonists, of whom was the great Socrates, reported to
have suffered martyrdom for his opinion of the unity of
God. But indeed it was not only his, but the confes-
sion of all the rest ; all of them agreeing in ascribing
power, beneficence, purity, omniscience, eternity, and
the rest of the divine and incommunicable attributes to
Him. 2 Wherefore Maximus Tyrius exhorts men not
to set their affections here below, but to contemplate
God, and penetrate, even beyond this aspectable world,
to the invisible nature. In a word, it is impossible to
show that God cannot exist, and therefore plain madness
to believe he does not. And, therefore, when a thing is

' See his Epistle to Dionysius.

' Cic. de Divin., l.i. ; Seneca Ep., 41, 44, 76; Anton., 1. 2; see
S. Aug. de Cic. Dei, lib. xi., c. 22.

288 THE TRUE RELIGION.

not by Institution, law, or custom, but universal suffrage,
it must certainly be true, and consequently a God.'

SECTION VI. ATHEISTS.^
Atheists are properly those who derive all from sense-
less matter. These are called our new philosophers,
men of high thought, Esprits forts, who yet ascend no
farther than this dunghill earth ; so as they will have
God contribute nothing more to the fabric of the uni-
verse than his whirling about the vortices of matter,
globose and striate particles, from whose casual motions,
according to certain cathoHc laws of nature and matter,
all things, animate and inanimate, proceed; without the
conduct, forsooth, of any mind, wisdom, or providence
whatsoever. But we have already overthrown these
impertinences, no ways averse to the Corpuscularian
opinion and mechanism of nature, as the sole contrivance
of the most wise and powerful God, for His own glory,
and to lead us to the contemplation of His perfections.
Take the whole world together, and there is nothing
(however things may appear to us singly) but what is
worthy of God, and contributes to the use, beauty, and
harmony of the whole, and of each particular. And if
any evil there be in them, it is not from God, but our-
selves. So true is that of St. Augustine, Malce volun-
tatis efficiens est nihil, namely, evil has no cause besides
itself, and has therefore no nature ; so as it is the loss
of good that has given it name.

' On this head see the foregoing chapters i. and ii.

' Consult the two first sermons of Dr. Tillotson, part 1.

THE TRUE EELIGION. 289

Because they cavil that there is so much mischief
among wicked men, and that all things are not calm
alike ; whereas it is argument of a greater pro\ idence
that men are of several inclinations and tempers for the
maintaining of peace and order, — that some command
and others obey,^ — some teach and others learn, — since,
but for these seeming contrarieties and subordinations,
all would be competitors for the same thing, and there
could be no living, no government, no polity ; and the
same extends to all things else in nature, for the benefit
of all. Nor is there any music grateful but has its dis-
' cords. Thus, the needs of some produce commerce,
acquaintance, industry, and show us the use of passions
and affections, namely, to exercise our virtue.

Others we find displeased at the structure and fabric
of the world. Let its parts be compared together with
the whole, and we shall also find nothing but harmony
and beauty in it, displaying a variety, and constant in
all its revolutions and seasons, which are useful and
necessary, not only for us, but for all other creatures :
so that what perhaps may be noxious to one is health
and medicine to another. For to think so highly of
ourselves, as if nothing else were to share with us, were
insupportable arrogance. '

Indeed, when a religious person looks up to heaven,
and humbly casts his eyes upon the inferior world, con-
templating how many more of God's creatures were
ordained to make his Hfe and being here agreeable, he
cannot but with holy David break into ecstasy,^ and find
' Seneca, de Ira. ' Psalm viii.

VOL. I. II

290 THE TRUE RELIGION.

himself obliged to more grateful returns, because, In
addition to all this, he is qualified with an intellectual
soul, and capacities to make the best use of what he
receives ; and, unless he obstinately shut his eyes, must
acknowledge God in all he sees. For, to require other
demonstration, and to believe nothing save what they
see, as it is absurd, so it is not possible any rational
creature should be so stupid. To think all things
demonstrable, takes away demonstration itself: nor is
there any Atheist of them all but believes innumerable
things which he never sees. Besides, all religion con-
sists in objects which could not be and exist if they were
visible. Thus, we see not the past, nor future, nor are
our very hearts and souls to be seen, without our own
destruction ; yet, both exist, or else we could not live.
We should therefore take estimate of the powers from
the effects, and not the contrary. We wonder how the
soul survives the body, when we should more admire
how a spirit should unite with matter. The union of
the soul and body is more stupendous than their separa-
tion. Who can comprehend the alliance of a substance
extended, and that takes up place, has bounds to con-
tain it, and only acts at present upon other subjects,
with a thing that has no figure, extension, colour,
fluidity, or solidity ; and yet which is everywhere, whilst
destitute of parts? We admire at the mention of a
Creator and His providence in preserving all things,
when we should rather wonder how we have lived so
long in the world, for what purpose, whence we came,
and what will become of us. O, the depths of the wis-

o

THE TRUE RELIGION. 291

dom of God ! How inscrutable are all His ways ! But
of this see Chapter X, where we have more at large
shown the absurdity of requiring demonstration and
miracles to obtain belief of things which prove them-
selves. Incredulity here is the most foohsh and dan-
geroOs ; for its consequences are affected ignorance,
pride, singularity, disingenuity, obstinacy, uncharitable-
ness, suspicion, laziness, (what shall I call it ?) monstrous
ill-nature, and worse, near the sin against the Holy
Ghost.

There is nothing which Atheists and half philosophers
(unworthy of that name) do more ridicule than the
punishment and fire of hell : that, being a thing ma-
terial, it should operate on immaterials ; not considering
that the holy scriptures make use of divers such images,
as are known by every one, to represent what is other-
wise inconceivable ; and therefore borrows that of fire
and brimstone, storm and tempest, the never-dying
worm, outward darkness, &c., (such as the Egyptians
felt) the valley of Hinnom, and the like, because there
is nothing more tormenting and affrightful than those
pains in which fire and these ingredients are used among
cruel men.

And the same may be said of heaven and the abodes
of the blessed — the description of the celestial city
drawn by St. John ;' which all indeed faU short, if
literally taken. But that, which they represent, is infi-
nitely greater than the highest ideas can produce to
resemble them by ; but yet such as best convey their
' Kev., xxii.

u2

292 THE TRUE EELIGION.

meaning to all the world ; there being nothing here on
earth, which can better affect us, and our Imagination,
to comprehend the dreadfulness of the damned recep-
tacles, and the glories of a Heavenly Paradise. Were
they any other ways described, and as they are in them-
selves, we should not understand them while we are in
this fraU and mortal state. They exceed our utmost
capacities at present, but may sufficiently stir us up
to avoid the one, and strive for the other. The like
may be said of the solemnity of the Last Judgment,
by resembling it to the circumstances of our earthly
tribunals, and assizes, where criminals are tried, ac-
quitted, or condemned. And with similar images has
our blessed Lord represented several sublime and real
mysteries, as of the Spouse, the Virgin, the Marriage
of the Lamb, the Master and Servants, the Shepherd
and his Flock, Tares and the Wheat, the Elch Man and
Lazarus.

The like quarrel have they to that of the soul's im-
raortahty, though the very Heathen have been per-
suaded of it from the beginning." Aristotle^ confesses
the soul to be ana6^s, afiiyrjs, ajrXour, impassible, pure,
simple, and consequently not subject to corruption.
And what means his 'EvrfXexna, but a divine principle ?

But I shall need pursue this no farther, having
already done It so copiously in Chapter III. In the
mean time, that which seems to have led men into
these later absurdities may have been the schools, fancy-

' Seneca, Ep. 65-117; Cicero, De Amicit. Tuscul., ii.
- De Anima.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 2.93

ing real entities, and substantive qualities of matter,
distinct from the modifications of bodies, and yet ge-
nerable out of them, and conceptible into them.
Whereas, though all life of a compound nature be
indeed dissipable, our souls and real entities remain
entire, Avhen divested of this gross and material
flesh.

Then, as to other spirits, apparitions, and miracles,
which Atheists deride, though there are (it is confessed)
many impostors and cheats for secular interests, yet
true ones have been so attested, in all histories and ages,
by matters of fact, laws, and other authentic records,
that it were impudence to disbeheve them, as we shall
come hereafter to show.

Finally, predictions have been asserted, also, by the
gravest philosophers.' Why, then, should we call into
question what the heathen made no doubt of, who have
a more sure word, of prophecy ; for their oracles often
told them lies — the Scriptures of God never. Many of
them were acknowledged by the Pagans themselves, a.s
that of Daniel, by Porphyry, and others ; of which in
our Eighth Chapter.

They had, also, imperfect notions of the Fall of Man,
and of his having been once In a more happy state. A
fragment of Cicero gives us no obscure hint, where he
says, as if some prophet or expounder of the Divine mind
had said, Nos oh scelera smcepta in vita superion,

1 See the learned Cicero's book, De Divinatione, where he tells
us of a discourse written by Chrysippus, and that many of them
came to pass, doubtless, by God's permission.

294 THE TRUE RELIGION.

pocnarum ineundarum causa, natos esse.^ The poets
sing of the golden age ; and Hesiod's fancy of man's
misery, through the curiosity of a woman opening
Pandora's box, is not to be passed over no more than
Plato's, 'Av8p6yvvos, or woman cleft out of man. The im-
pudence of the old heroes and the gigantic rebellion
has authority among the heathen. So the story of the
Flood. And their general assent, that all the world
shall one day perish by fire, that it also had beginning
out of chaos, and that night begat the day.

They held two principles, Deus and Dwmon — one
good, the other evil. And Homer feigns an invisible
power, which walked about the world, inspecting the
actions of men, and of God's special residence in some
higher orb. In a word, these opinions were not only
taken up by the vulgar and ignorant alone, but asserted
by the most knowing among them, and it begat venera-
tion in them to their deities. And they oftentimes ap-
pealed to them and to the judgment to come, as Cle-
mens Alexandrinus abundantly proves. Nor was this
ineffectual for the conduct of their lives. They ab-
horred incest, had solemn laws of matrimony, they took
care of their parents, decently interred their dead, prac-
tised both distributive and commutative justice, and
for other moral virtues exceeded many Christians.

These, and sundry more religious particulars, whether

coming to the rest of the world from the Chaldaeans,

Phenicians, or Egyptians, by books or tradition, from

' " We are born to undergo punishment for crimes committed
in a former life."

THE TRUE EELIGION. 293

where the first letters and more useful arts proceeded ;
and from places nearer the terrestrial paradise, and
derived to us from the most ancient historians, have
great weight with considering men. As Aristotle well
conjectures, that though the greatest truths might, in
tract of time, be much corrupted, yet those which came
from the earhest times carry, evidently, marks of sin-
cerity. Their descriptions of the infernal regions, and
punition of evil-doers there ; the placing their virtuous
heroes and benefactors among the gods, where they
enjoyed light and perpetual repose, were not the fictions
of poets only, since we find Socrates discoursing of his
migration and departure to a mansion where the gods
inhabited.

Were there no prospect beyond the present pheno-
mena, conscience would not be so clamorous and un-
quiet after the committing some facinorous crime. Nor
would the stoutest persons, as some we read of (and
others we have known), fear the dark, like children,
and the burying-places of the dead. The boldest
Atheist has dreaded thunder. And if there be no God
or account to be given after this frail life, why, of all
others, are they, of all others, unwilling to die, though
ever so miserable and ill at ease here ? They object
the common calamity which befalls the godly, as well
as impious, many times in this life ; but take not the
pains to observe how infinite numbers more, who led
debauched lives, and are as without God in the world,
come to more fatal ends. Whilst the signal disasters
of profligate men are remarkable in more frequent and

296 THE THUE EELIGION.

fearful judgments, they overwhelm them suddenly,
and aU ages have taken notice of the circumstances.
Thus tyrants, oppressors, persecutors, murderers, adul-
terers, perjurers, sacrilegious persons, traitors, profane
and atheistical men seldom escape vengeance in this
life. Witness Alexander, Csesar, Nero, Domitian, Judas,
Absalom, Abimelech, and innumerable others of elder
times. To whom we may add, of nearer to us — Kichard
the Third, Pope Alexander the Sixth, and most of those
who lately acted that inhuman tragedy among us, whose
carcases came, by the gibbet, to infamous ends.

And we see a secret moth consuming private famihes
for sacrilege, oppression, rapine, injustice, bastardy,
and the like. The strange detection of murders would
fill volumes to recount them, and the cruel persecutors
of God's people rarely came to their graves in peace, of
which see that excellent plea of Lactantlus, newly come
to light.' Solomon^ tells us a bird of the air shall dis-
cover treason. And seldom do we find notorious vil-
lanies and bloody persecutors pass unpunished even in
this life. On the contrary, the rewards of virtuous
and religious persons are as conspicuous, if not in
worldly riches and external splendour, yet in inward
comforts, contentedness, and acquiescence, cheerful and
healthy lives, patience in sickness, and ravisliing hopes
of future joys when they come to die.

To conclude : — things future are so above our com-
prehension, that the wisest men are but good guessers.
None but the Maker of all things, and who gave His

' De Mortibus persecutorum. 2 Eccles., x., 20.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 297

creatures faculty to work, and who rules and directs
their operations to their several ends, can possibly see
the effects depending upon those causes. And, there-
fore} by what means we may be assured of a prophecy,
by the same we may be of a Deity. For, unless all
records of the world were forged, and all notices of his-
tory designed on purpose to put a cheat on posterity,
and abuse their own children, whom all parents in all
ages have cherished and wished happy, there can be no
pretence to suspect the being of a God. All the works
of nature are uniform, and there is a certain sphere of
every creature's power and activity. If, then, any
action be performed, which is not within the compass
of the power of any natural agent; if anything wrought
by the intervention of a body that bears no proportion
to it, or have no natural aptitude so to work, it must,
of necessity, be ascribed to some cause transcending all
natural causes, and universally disposing them. Thus,
every miracle proves its author to be God, and every
act of omnipotency is a demonstration against the
Atheists.

Our own consciences within us find comfort and ap-
probation in virtuous and honest actions, and remorse
for wicked and base ones. The most obdurate Atheist
and pagan have (as we showed) acknowledged it. Xor
is it to be obliterated by any possible means. Consider
we Caligula, who, though a professed Atheist, yet hid
his head under a bed at the thunder and lightning, upon
consideration of his guilt ; so that, what in his obstinacy
and wilfulness he denied, he, by that involuntary action,

298 THE TRUE RELIGION.

confessed. When, therefore, this truth will not be con-
fessed, it shall be extorted at one time or other. How
unhappy, then, he who denies a God to himself, and
proves it to another! And what a madness not to
acknowledge Him, of whom it is impossible to be igno-
rant ! Though some ungracious children may be so
wicked as not to honour their parents, we never heard
of any one who denied they had them. For man being
the only nature capable of religion, that is, of appre-
hending a Deity, and expecting future rewards and
punishments, no endeavour could utterly suppress it."
They deny it in the day, says Seneca, but confess it
at night. God is the principle of the knowledge we
have of His existence, both by His works, without in
the visible world, and in the impressions He has en-
graved in our souls. And if any be who deny this
truth, they are to be looked upon and treated rather as
monsters than as men. Indeed, custom and education
do, for the most part, sway men more than serious re-
flections on the reasonableness of believing a Deity.
But that proceeds from their desire of gratifying a pre-
sent, sensual, and inordinate passion. They give them-
selves no leisure to recollect, and make use of their
reason, which would certainly lead them to be religious.
It is not, therefore, any prejudice of education conducts
us to the belief of a God, and that He ought to be wor-

' Cic. de Legibus. Ex tot generibus nullum est animal, quod
non habeat notitiam aliquam Dei; ipsisque in hominibus nulla
gena est, neque tam immansueta, neque tam fera, quae non, etiamsi
ignoret, qualem habere deum debeat, tamen habendum sciat.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 29.9

sliipped by us, but a necessary consequence of all they
see in the creation. No effect of education or custom
forces us to believe all the wisdom, power, goodness,
and perfection of God ; that He loves, provides for, and
expects His creatures should love, acknowledge, and
adore Him, and condemns all impiety, and such actions
as are destructive to our well being ; that God should
be so good and merciful to impious men here, and
virtue go unrewarded, if there were not a just and cer-
tain dispensation to come.

These truths, not our education, but common sense
and natural reason evinces. To affirm that God ap-
proves and loves all men and actions alike, good and
bad, were to make the fountain of justice and virtue
wicked and imperfect ; which were to render Him no
God, or one at least who takes no notice of our actions.
If it be objected that God, of His Omnipotent power,
being absolutely free to do as He will, may voluntarily
lay aside all thought and concern for us, it is answered,
that God must needs know himself, and, if so, all beings
that ever issued from Him ; and, contemplating His own
beneficence, cannot but regard those objects for whose
sake His goodness and bounty is communicated. For
God's perfections being infinite, nothing can be pain, or
molestance to Him.

The Atheist, then, is grievously perplexed betwixt
these two truths : — the One, that certain actions are
wicked, because their own reason, conscience, universal
consent, natural law, and every thing else enforce it ;
the other, that wicked actions ought not to be attri-

300 THE TRUE RELIGION.

buted (as to their principle) to that God who condemns
them, and has imprinted in our soula the same senti-
ments by the light of Nature and our reason.

But supposing, with some learned men, who are yet
far from being Atheists, that the knowledge of a Deity be
not connatural to our souls, for that the Soul has rather
(say they) no in-bred knowledge at aU, or of any thing
from the beginning, but is a rasa tabula, without the
least character of knowledge imprinted in her, unless we
were assured of her pre-existence. For this cause,
God never charges any with their ignorance of Him
upon that account ; so that men cannot ground their
knowledge of God's existence upon self-evidence ; for
whosoever shall deny it, can (say some) by no means be
convinced; it being irrational to tell one who is in
doubt of it that he must believe it because it is evident,
when he knows that he only doubts because it is not
evident to him, at least. But, though this were so, yet
that God is, wUl be apparent to us so soon as reason
exerts herself by its connexion to other truths ; as the
dependency of inferior beings leads us, whether we will or
no, to the Superior Independent Being, or nature of in-
finite perfection, potential and causative of all other
beings.'

To conclude, then : it is a most dangerous thing to
be an Atheist ; or, if men be not such, to live like

1 Deus est Suum Esse ; sed quia nos non scimus de Deo, quid
est, non est nobis per se notus ; sed indiget demonstrari per ea,
quae sunt magis nota, quoad nos, et minus nota quoad naturum,
scilicet per effectus. — Aquinas.

THE TRUE EELIGION. 301

Atheists. For, whatever becomes of those who are of a
false religion (which we next come to treat of), he that
is of none Is sure to perish. If the one be upon an
uncertainty, the other is upon an impossibility, of being
saved. It is, therefore, better by far uncertainly to err
than certainly to perish. The weakest hopes are better
than utter despair. But the thing they fancy is an
absolute annihilation, which is but a very melancholy
meditation ; and, whatever they pretend, the dread and
horror of death perplexes them ; but why so if there be
not something after death which they fear and doubt
of ? The frights and torments of a guilty conscience
and of revenge, even in the heathen, put this out of the
question.

There may be, indeed, numbers of practical Atheists,
as daily, indeed, we find too many ; yet it is hard to
believe it possible there should be any speculative
Atheist. There are many other most convincing argu-
ments and motives from the creation of the universe,
the great and lesser world, man, and the Providence of
God, in preserving and governing them, which we have
abundantly produced in most of the foregoing Chapters,
to evince the being of a Deity, and confound the Atheist ;
and, therefore, we will here shut up the present.

302 THE TRUE RELIGION.

CHAPTER VI.

OF THE FALSE, PAGAN, AND GENTILE EELIGION.

SECTION I. RISE OF IDOLATRY.
SECTION II. IMAGE WORSHIP.
SECTION III. PAGAN PHILOSOPHY.

Primus sapientiae gradus est falsa intelligere.

Lactantius.

SECTION I. RISE OE IDOLATRY.

The false and Pagan religion sprung from the cor-
ruption of the natural, which was first itself corrupted
by the Fall of Man, who only had it in perfection till
he lost his innocency. So those impaired remainders
of it, which some of his immediate posterity retained,
were well nigh lost, and extremely adulterated, by
tract of time, from the posterity of Cain. And this
corruption was so universal, that the Deluge, which
swept away the whole world, excepting eight persons
only, did not so cleanse the race of mankind, but that,
soon after the flood. Idolatry and Superstition perverted
it again in the grossest manner ; turning religion, and
the worship of the true God, into all manner of licen-
tiousness and superstition. Satan, the god of this

THE TRUE EELIGION. 303

lower world, blinding their eyes, the religion they pro-
fessed was such as their own imaginations had set up,
worshipping and serving the creature more than the
Creator, who is God blessed for ever.'

Now, what their religion was before that general
cataclysm, which swept away things as well as men,
is no where described for us by any human author of
credit. Their sins and wickedness was it, which
brought upon them that swift destruction we have in
Genesis. Men, multiplying in the earth, were given so
to luxury, that God, seeing their wickedness was great,
and every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts
evil continually, repented that He had made man.
Xor doubt we but, amongst other their sins, idolatry
had spread itself, even in those early days, through the
subtlety of that old and malicious serpent, who seduced
our first parents from the service of the true God ;
whose worship, consisting chiefly in speculation upon
the works of Creation, they celebrated in sacrifices and
oblations from the beginning, clothing themselves with
the skins of the beasts they offered.

But the first objects of their early worship, after the
flood, and perhaps too before it (I mean, of those who
were of the more wicked race, and who had forgotten
that of the true God), might, most likely, as the most
natural, have been of the Heavenly fires, the sun, and
moon, and host of Heaven (as among the Egyptians,
under the names of Osiris, or Serapis and Isis), from
the benefits received by their influence; those bright
' Gen., iv.

304 THE TRUE EELIGION.

constellations being reputed to be nearest tbe seats and
mansions of the gods ; and therefore named ecot,' from
their perpetual motions; and chose high places and
mountains to sacrifice on, as nearest those constellations.
They deemed the Sun a kind of archangel, and called
him the organ or divine harp of the Deity, whose har-
mony charmed the rest of the universe into order ; as
that of Orpheus did the stones into the city of Thebes.
And upon this conceited hypothesis was founded the
astrological magic of the Persians and Egyptians, with
their Demons and Intelligences, who governed their
revolutions, and influenced their superstitious talismans.

Most probably it is that Cham, the profane son of
Noah, and his descendants, having, as we said, quite
lost the knowledge of the true God, and, choosing Egypt
for their country, set on foot this worsliip, which, as
Maimonldes observes, was so general, that the notice of
any other god was rarely known ; ascribing all events
to the operations of the Heavens, whom they also in-
voked upon all occasions, holding up their hands, and
lifting up their eyes to them in distress. And this,
seconded perhaps by revelations, pretended at least, as
Orlgen thinks, might be allowed by God Himself, wink-
ing at their ignorance, before the promulgation of the
law, to keep the world from yet that grosser idolatry
into which it afterwards fell. But the good father is
single in this fancy ; though, as it was the most natural
and tolerable worship, whilst men received the benefit
of their light and influences,^ they might haply address

' eeo'r, from delv, to run. ^ -wisd., xiii., 2, 3.

THE TKUE RELIGION. 30.5

to tliem as mediators ; yet, when they added sacrifices,
burnt incense, and performed other rites, and actions of
Divine adoration also, it turned to flat idolatry, taking
the creature for the Creator. For it seems they stayed
not here, nor were they content with these appearances.

The Author of Wisdom ' informs us at large that
the devising of idols was the beginning of spiritual
fornication, and the invention of them the corruption of
life. Not that it should be so for ever, but as these
mighty tyrants (giants as they were called) and vain-
glory of men introduced them, so in time those things,
which were nothing (for an idol is nothing in the world),
should in time come to nothing. A Father, says that
author, afflicted with untimely mourning, when he had
made an image of his deceased child, soon taken away,
now honoured him as a god, who was then but a dead
man, and delivered to those who were under him cere-
monies and sacrifices. For many of the Pagan gods
were only the souls of dead men, called by the Greeks
heroes, or by the Latins, Manes; such as Hercules,
^Esculapius, &c. And thus, in process of time, an im-
pious custom, grown strong, was observed as a law ;
and graven images were worshipped by the command-
ment of kings. For men could not know them in
presence, because they dwelt far off; so thus made an
express image of a king, that they might flatter the
absent. Thus, the midtitude, allured by the grace of
the artificer's work, took him for a god. And, likely it
is, that (as we noted) the Devil, by pretended appa-
2 Wisd., xiv., 14, 27.

VOL. I. X.

306 THE TRUE RELIGION.

ritions, revelations, false miracles, and tricks, done in
and about those statues, persuaded a belief of the
presence of the imaginary deities which they represented.
And this was the occasion to deceive the world, — men
under their calamity or tyranny ascribing unto stones
and stocks the Incommvinicable Name. Kor was this
all; for, whilst they erred In the knowledge of God,
they devised other gods, slaying their very children in
sacrifice, and used secret ceremonies, reveUings, and
abominable rites, — the worship of images, not to be
named, being the beginning, the cause, and the end of
all evil.

Thus the race of cursed Cham, not caring to retain
God in their knowledge ; nor, when they knew him,
glorifying Him as God, He gave them over to a repro-
bate mind ; and, becoming vain in their imaginations,
they changed the glory of the Incorruptible God into
an image, made like to corruptible man, and to birds,
and four-footed beasts, and creeping things ; changing
the truth of God into a lie ; > and to what shameful,
obscene, and unspeakable villanies, St. Paul gives us
the catalogue at large.

Thus, at the beginning, some fond parent, doating on
his dead child, might cause his image to be made and
worshipped. Not that it was the first idolatry, but the
first relating to the deifying or apotheosis of the dead,
to honour the memory of some illustrious person, or
such as were inventors of useful arts, — men of extra-
ordinary ingenuity, — also conquerors, and captains, for
' Rom., i., 21, &c.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 307

fear, or love ; and such godlike heroes, as did them
good, by defending their persons and country, and
enacting wholesome laws. Thus Ninus, in honour of
his father, Belus, erected his statue, and made it an
asylum.'

But, leaving off this Velameti, they grossly made the
figures of brute animals to represent the heavenly
bodies and constellations. Not that the wiser amongst
them really believed any such peculiar or divine virtue
to reside in those representations, but as intimating the
several attributes, effects, and powers of one Deity,
under various names. For, not knowing what God's
proper name was, they invoked Him by innumerable
names. Still, the Magna Mater, or Terra, was esteemed
mother of all the rest, for her plenty and exuberance.^
Nay, Serapis's oracle to a Cyprian king declared him-
self to be the universe itself; that the stellated canopy
was his head, the sea his belly, the earth his body, and
the sun his eye. So that under the names of Ceres,
Liber, Janus, Vulcan, Minerva, &c., they celebrated
the justice, liberality, and knowledge of several useful
arts and profitable inventions, which they were famous
for.' We have the mention of some of them in Holy
Scripture, for the invention of tents, minerals, and

' August. De Civit. Dei, 1. 1. Amongst these was Saturn of
the Phenicians; Astarte, who was worshipped in the planet Venus,
Osiris, and sometimes a Phcenix, in the sun. Isis, and sometimes
Apis, in the moon. For Mercury, Sirius, Noah in Janus, &c.

* hominum DivAmque aaterna Creatrix. Statius. Thebaid.

^ Cic. De Nat. Deorum. See Lactant. De falsa Kel., c. 22.

X2

308 THE TEUE RELIGION.

works in iron, without which metal no other work
could well be done ; culture of ground, and husbandry,
and the first mention of a liberal science, music, which,
comprehending number and proportion, is of large ex-
tent. And these before the Flood. Thus Horace to
Augustus,'

Romulus, et Liber Pater, et cum Castore Pollux
Post ingentia facta, Deorum in templa recepti.

To these add such as had skiU in simples, drugs, and
the Materia Medica ; inventors of letters and hierogly-
phics, astrology, and navigation. And because no art
almost but uses fire and water, they worshipped Tubal-
Cain or Vulcan, Neptune or Noah, &c., communicated,
it is probable, with their religious rites, by the Egyp-
tians to the Persians, Indians, Greeks ; who had all
from the Egyptians (however arrogating aU these things
to themselves) and the Romans, one after another.

SECTION II. IMAGE WORSHIP.
Now, as to images, in these early times, it is possible
that idolatry was more ancient than even the worship
of images themselves ; which, some think, came not in
tUl the deifying of dead men. For the Romans (as
appears by Varro) were a hundred and seventy years
before they had any such things amongst them. So
that images did rather propagate idolatry than begin
it. Nay, perhaps it was before painting or sculpture
itself were celebrated arts ; which, I suppose, were
' Ep., lib. ii., i. 5.

THE TRUE RELIGION. S09

cultivated to advance and adorn It: It being so rude
and bunp;ling at first, that Pausanius tells us the Greeks
did only worship great stones, made pointed at the top.
Indeed, the pyramids and obelisks, as dedicated to the
sun, and representing his rays, point to that Heliolatria
we have been speaking of as so early in the world.
And the learned Scaliger says, the Phenicians had the •
like custom of worshipping rude stones : ' though, per-
haps, from Jacob pouring oil on the column at Bethel,
as a record of the true God, who is the Rock of Ages.

To these ceremonies the Romans added chaplets and
crowns of flowers, and unction also; and thus might
idolatry be more ancient than imagery. But whether
for that cause Adrian built so many temples, without
any images, I determine not. Some thought he in-
tended to erect in them the statue of Christ, others his
own efiigy, either of which would yet have made it flat
idolatry. But to proceed : to whom they set up sta-
tues and built temples, they soon added altars, sacri-
fices, flamens, priests, vestals, and other sacred oflicers.
Xor were their gods of the same rank and dignity.
They had their select deities, or Dii Majorum Gentium,
who had ascendancy over the rest, which the wiser
heathen did not take for several gods, but for their
various ofiices and effects.^ And indeed the Stoics, who
held even the gods themselves to be mortals, affirmed
that, when after many myriads of years they died, they
went all into Jupiter. And some Platonists would have

' Emendation.
2 S. Aug., De Civ. Dei, 1. iv., c. 11.

310 THE TRUE KELIGIOK.

every idea a god, and, if so, every idea of sin must be
so too. In a word, tot monstra, quot Jovis nomina.^

But, besides these major deities, the Pagan theolo-
gists, affirming their inferior or lesser gods, who derived
all their power from the greater, and were under their
correction, had amongst them certain heroes, or conse-
crated souls and spirits, naturally separated from matter,
whose office it was to mediate for mortals to the supe-
rior gods, and execute their orders. These had like-
wise both their temples, images, and altars. The greater
were called Dii Superi, or Ccelestes; the Xessex Dmrnoms,
which Plato affirms were those middle spirits, that
united mortals to the immortals, by putting up their
prayers. And this doctrine they had from the Magi,
Zoroaster, or haply from the Thracian Orpheus, Egypt,
or Phrygia. Doubtless the same with those who now-
a-days rank their saints and mediators among the lower
deities. For so their Dim and Divw come into the
catalogue. And these Pagan Daemons were the mes-
sengers and interpreters of the gods.^

In the mean time, Heslod seems author of the first
apotheosis. He tells us, that by a consult of Jupiter,
the heroes, and famous persons of old, were, after death,
or translation, rather, canonized and made the guardians
and patrons of mortal men, and those they left behind
— whose actions and lives they constantly inspected.'

' Arnob., 7.

' See Apuleius DeDeo Socratis. Jamblicus De Mysteriis, and
instar omnium St. Augustine, De Civ. Dei, lib. 8.
■* Euseb. De Praep., lib. xiii., c. 9.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 311

Thus the Platonists also would that every man had his
Gustos. To these they instituted feasts, which they
called Inferlw, Parentalia, Parentationes, Novendialia,
&c., and sometimes the temples and altars of their
heroes were their graves and sepulchres.

But, as was said, besides deified men and women,
(for by this time godheads were so cheap, and men, not
having where to choose better, deified one another)
there was hardly a beast, cat or dog, fowl or fish, worm
or reptile, tree or plant, which the Pagans did not abuse
to superstition. The rivers and floods, woods and
rocks and mountains, had their dryads, nymphs, satyrs,
Pans, Naiades. Nilus and Ganges were worshipped by
the Brachmins, fire by the Persians, as well as drought,
air, and even all the elements. I say not only Jupiter,
but every object they met with, (like the Indian Fetishes
at this day) were, by some or other, made their God.
And doubtless the ignorant sort of these infatuated
souls believed them real deities. For what is it super-
stition cannot eiFect ? We see it in some even at this
day, who would be thought very wise and knowing.
How was it else possible to conceive the Egyptians
should be afraid of those grovelling plants, which they
themselves planted, sowed, and cultivated in their gar-
dens, and trod on in the fields ? or of the stump of a
fig-tree, or piece of an old gallows, or something molten
out of a rusty kettle, cast and new hammered, a thing
that might rot, be burnt, or melted again, be meta-
morphosed from a man to a mouse, or turned into any
vessel for the vilest use, according to the artist's fancy !

312 THE TRUE RELIGION.

A stock or head, into whose mouth a toad might creep,
and spiders weave their webs, and worms consume !
They knew from what dirty pit and quarry they had
been hewn and dug, and yet implored help from that,
which (as the Prophet most elegantly described) could
not help itself, or move out of its place, to preserve
itself from burning, or a thief, i They nailed or chained
them to their stations, and yet feared them as omnipre-
sent and almighty. Nay, they erected altars to dis-
eases, to vicious passions. Fear, Envy, and Discord ; as
did both the Greeks, and those of Egypt. Of all
wliich, see the excellent Minutius Octavius, deducing
their pedigrees, several genealogies, and places of birth,
burials, and epitaphs, and that even of their great
Jupiter himself, father of aU the rest: as well as of
their impotency, and sordid vices, of which St. Augus-
tine in his city of God.^

Juno, who should have been the most exemplary to
the rest of her sex, was spiteful and jealous. Her hus-
band, Jupiter, an adulterer and ravisher, Hercules
grew frantic and biirnt himself. Fortune was incon-
stant. They quarrel among themselves, they fight,
nay, receive wounds, and bleed. Add to this, that some
of them were calamitous. Saturn is laden with chains,
ApoUo lost his mistress, Ceres her daughter, Isis her
son, Vulcan brake his thigh.

In a word, such absurd actions, childish and foolish
tricks, are recorded of them by their own wittiest poets,

' Isaiah, xl., 19.

' Lib. 4., c. 5, and 1. xviii., c. 13. Aruob,, lib. iv.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 31 3

satirists,' and some great historians, as plainly betray
their ridiculous worship.' So as it is to be wondered
how such impertinences should prevail, as they did, in
the world ; or that wise and sober men should counte-
nance it, and princes be at such cost to canonize and
deify such base, lewd, and infamous debauchees, with
divine honours, as so many gods and goddesses.

But thus had the god of this world blinded and in-
fatuated men's eyes and minds, insulting over the image
of the true God, to promote his own devilish worship.
For though, as the apostle tells us, an idol is nothing,
(namely, a thing which has no real existence) yet
Satan, stepping into God's place, and usurping what
belongs to no creature whatever, especially to so vile a
one, makes every act of such worship, idolatry. So as
those, who sacrificed to any of these representations,
sacrificed not to God, but to devils. It is possible
Aaron^ did intend no such thing, when he set up the
Golden Calf, as the worshipping it for the true God,
but rather as under that similitude only, it being the
figure of the cherub, which afterwards shadowed the
Propitiatory. No more doubtless did Jeroboam ; but
merely to give the revolters a visible sign of God's pre-
sence, as described by Ezekiel's Vision. But this could
be no excuse ; the crime proceeding from their making
any image whatever, to adore and worship it ; though
the worshipper esteem it but a senseless idol, a mere
vanity,

' Diodor. Sic, 1. i., 2, 4.

^ Levit., xvii., 7; Deut., xsxiii., 17 ; I. Cor., x., 19, 20, 21.

314 THE TRUE RELIGION.

God is a jealous God, and will have none to share in
an honour, which is alone due to Him, and to no other.
Nor yet that all images were unlawful, but the wor-
shipping of the true God under an image ; representing
Him as a creature, which corrupts the imagination, and
makes the superstition endless, and the rites so aho-
minable, as there was no vice or viUany, -which was not
practised in some of them.'

Add to these their ridiculous auguries, auspices,
raking into the entrails of beasts, and observing the
flying and chirping of birds for the event of every
enterprise.

Their theatres and spectacles were always ushered in
with processions of idols, displaying their banners, and
crowning their figures with garlands, and the Temple-
porches with fruits, festoons, and pompous shows; very
much resembling what a Church does at this day imi-
tate, which takes it iU to be charged with a gross super-
stition, as any of the Heathens. Let any one behold
and consider the multitude of their shrines, statues,
altars, pageants, temples, aspersions, bloody scourg-
ings, and disciplines, lamps and candles at noon-day ;
their pompous vestments, apish and ridiculous gestures,
dirges, dismal tone, and other innumerable fopperies
copied from Pagan rites, and savouring more of the
theatre, than of the sober and solemn and rational wor-
ship of the great God.

I cannot sufficiently, I say, wonder that the learned
and knowing men of the Church of Rome should take
' S. August., De Civ. Dei, 1. vii., c. 26.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 315

such pains and write such volumes to propagate these
impertinences, in an age so enlightened, and to the
scandal not only of all good Christians, but even of
Turks and Infidels. But the craftsmen have their living
from these Dianas, and these have more than one
goddess — they are innumerable; interceding not oidy
for men and women only, but for pigs and poultry ;
invoked, censed, vowed, and pilgrimaged too, as the
Heathen did.

They had likewise nuns and vestals, who looked after
the sacred fire.' See their office described by Diony-
sius Halicarnassus, and their being permitted to marry
after thirty years.^

The first we read of that brought images to Rome,
was the superstitious Numa, as Cadmus into Greece.
Varro confesses cities were before them, but, after that,
so apprehensive were they of not having enough, that
the statues of them were almost as many as of men.
And lest the Greeks might disoblige some of the num-
ber through ignorance, the Athenians, we read, erected
an altar to the God Unknown,

That they worshipped evil spirits in all this, many of
themselves confess ; and the Greeks called them Caco-
dcemones, the Persians Arimanes, and the Vejoves, and
Averruncans of the Latins.' And, therefore, their

' Alex, ab Alexan., 1. 5., c. 12 ; Plutarch in Camillo. Strabo., 1. 6.

' The difference between these and the Christian virgins, see
elegantly described by S. Ambrose in his answer to Symmachus,
who wrote in their behalf to Valentinian and Theodosius.

' See Aul. Gell. Noc. Att., lib. v., c. 17.

316 THE TKUE EELIGION.

oracles were no other than certain impure spirits, who,
having been precipitated from their own glorious station
into the darker regions, for their insolence, giving them-
selves to desperate malice, and the perdition of seduced
man, sought, it is likely, to alleviate their calamitous
condition, by bringing others into the same condemna-
tion ; suggesting whatever might contribute to it, by
all possible allurements. For this effect, he who had
before made use of the subtle serpent to seduce our
first parents, makes use of images and idols now, to
pervert their posterity. In these he sometimes uttered
dubious responses ; and, sometimes, as he endeavoured
to tempt our blessed Saviour by texts of Scripture, and
the undoubted oracles, so he now and then, to purchase
reputation, spake truth, but such as mostly tended to
mislead his devotees. And these were managed by
crafty priests and priestesses, charms and enthusiasms,
raising and kindling passions, diabolical lusts, and abo-
minable actions. The Python lurking sometimes in the
images themselves, and not seldom in his ministers.

Of these most renowned was the Delphic oracle, yet
doubtful, uncertain, and for the most part so utterly
false in his predictions, that ^nomanus, a famous phi-
losopher and votary of their own, had written an ex-
press volume of their forgeries and impostures. And
though they had been compelled to confess they were
but devils, and no gods, which, as the light of a better
religion arose, ceased and were put to silence; yet
wizards and soothsayers undertook the trade, abusing
credulous people, as yet they continue to do among the

THE TllUE EELIGIOX. 817

blinded pagans, where the sun of righteousness has not
yet appeared. Plainly St. Augustine tells them that
devils possessed their idols.' And Leon, the Egyptian
Archflamen, confessed as much in private to Alexander
INIagnus long before. Nor with less ingenuity Por-
phyry himself that their responses were in his time not
only full of mistakes, but subject to lying.

In the mean time, never did Satan more discover the
depth of his malice than by his pretended oracles, to
which deluded men came from the farthest parts of the
world. They frequently, as we noted, spake of the
sublimest matters, wrapped up in mysterious expres-
sions ; and, to gain authority and reputation, would
sometimes command the fear and love of the Deity,
duty to parents, acts of justice, and the like.^

It was not then by the powers or blessings of their
gods, but (as the impostor Mahomet) by their sword,
barbarous sacrilege, and villanies, from the first foun-
dation of their empire, that they conquered the world.
Romulus laid the first stone of their city's walls in the
blood of his own brother, and peopled it by a rape. All
their riches and grandeur were but the product of their
insatiable avarice, unjust invasions, and ambition. For

• S. Aug. De Civ. Dei, 1. 8, c. 23.

' As to their predictions, people did not so much take notice of
things, which did not come to pass, as of what succeeded, though
they were as false, and seldom as their miracles. Consult Lactan-
tius, comparing their pretended feats with what jugglers and
hocus-pocuses performed, surpassing all the tricks of their Serapis,
yea, and even of their Accius Nsevius, and Claudia.

318 THE TEUE EELIGION.

how could just Gods consent to aid and help them,
whom they captived and dragged in chains after their
triumph and chariots ! But, granting that they some-
times were permitted to do a strange and unusual
thing, for the further hardening and punition of their
abominable idolatries and superstition, it was but just
in God so to punish this stupid or affected ignorance,
since they could not but condemn themselves, had they
made use of that reason which distinguished them from
beasts.'

SECTION III. PAGAN PHILOSOPHY.

Let us now then enquire what the philosophers' and
wiser heathens' rehgion was, and what they further
thought of all this folly. It is confessed, that there are
many things in Plato, Seneca, Epictetus, and others,
which some would reduce to rules of life, nay, beyond
morality, even to principles of our Christian faith ; as
particularly concerning the Holy Trinity. But this
was all tradition, derived from Pythagoras, by the
familiarity he had with deceiving spirits, seeking to
refine the Gentile idolatry and superstition into a
more subtle way of adoring the Devil. And this being
imitated by Simon Magus, Apollonius Thyaneus,
and such impostors, produced that adoration of angels

' It is evident that neither Aristotle, Epicurus, Cicero, Seneca,
nor any of the thinking sort (unless either to amuse the vulgar,
or for political respects) believed what they professed. Cicero,
treating of the nature of the gods, sufficiently shows the vanity
of their numbers.

THE TRUE RELIGION. SI 9

which the Scripture so often condemns.' And hence
we shall find that even those excellent things, which the
wiser Greeks and Romans have written of, our duty to
God and men, proceeded from their being instructed, as
best might serve the craft and purposes of Satan, to
detain them in their other errors ; the rest of what they
published and taught being tainted with such positions
and gross mistakes as cannot consist with the worship
of the true God.

Let us take a short survey of the heathen sacrifices,
and how nearly they imitated the INIosaical rites, that
so the subtle spirit might draw away the people of
God, under a show of no less sanctity and devotion.

No sooner had the priest led the victim to the altar,
but he took hold of the stone, and, standing, prayed
first to Janus and Vesta, who were still the principal
numens in these rites, to make way for the higher
powers.^ Then was Jupiter called on with the rest.
Then, lest anything should be omitted, there attended
certain custodes, or monitors, who imposed silence to the
company, and pipes were sounded, lest anything that
was indecent, or of iU abode, might be heard.' The
priest now begins the immolation, which was either
some friut, or a lump of meal, sprinkled with salt, and
some grains of incense, which was laid on the head of
the beast. After this, was poured wine out of an ewer.
This they called delibation, and never omitted, first
sprinkling, then casting it into the fire. This done, the

' Col., ii., 8. 23. '^ Val. Max., 1. i., c. 1.

' Panvinius De Fastis, and in 2 de Kepub.

320 THE TRUE RELIGION.

priest commands the victims, and other officers attending,
to knock down and cut the throat of the creature;
receiving the blood into vessels. Then they flayed off
the skin, washed the flesh, and laid the fire in order.
After this, the aruspex fiamen and priest, raking the
entrails, to see if anything were defective or redundant
there. A portion of every member being cut ofi" for
prelibatioH, and rolled in flour, was burnt ; which being
consumed, the priests ate the rest with their jolly com-
panions dancing about, and singing the praises of their
gods to the noise of cymbals and other fantastic in-
struments.

Xow, how these ceremonies answered the Levitical
may be gathered from the ritual chapters of the Penta-
teuch.' Here we see how Satan, aping the Deity, did
strive to imitate the prescribed sacrifices. So were
they taught that the Divine justice was not to be
appeased without the shedding of blood, prayers, and
prostrations; erring only in the application to a false
object, and mixing their devotions with unwarrantable
rites and fancies of their own.

They farther held that, for the sin of man, man was
to die. Hence Csesar tells us the Grauls sacrificed their
children, as those of Africa a Man to Saturn, after a
more cruel manner. And so, of later times, what we
read of Montezuma's idol in Mexico. Not that the
wicked spirit induced his votaries to this unnatural
superstition, in relation to the sacrifice of Christ, but,
as we said, that he might place himself in his Father's
' Numbers, xv., xxviii. Deut., xxxii., &c.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 321

irone, for which he was thrown down to Hell. For,

to this, or any other sort of sacrifice, did we well

mtemplate the idea of God, one could not easily be

irsuaded that the blood of beasts should reconcile us

His favour, or even that He had commanded such a
rvice, till the Christian religion drew the curtains, and
owed the reason of its typifying the offering of that
nmaculate Lamb, who takes away the sins of the
orld.

In the mean time, it is the opinion of St. Augus-
ae ' that, since Almighty God would be honoured by
orifice. He would have a sacrifice worthy of Him, and
lerefore of the most worthy of his creatures, man.
hat even in Paradise itself, as a Divine worship, so a
crifice; namely, man himself, in innocence, offered
mself, — that is, was ready and willing to have done

as thinking nothing too precious for his Benefactor,
ut, after the Fall, there was no man worthy to be
fered to him ; but man himself stood in need of a
ire victim, that might be sacrificed for him, and re-
incile His justice. And, indeed, all the Jewish rites
id ceremonies were but a continual prophecy of that
tiich was afterwards to be done in the church ; '■' and,
erefore, were there so many sacrifices enjoined them,
liich signified only that Lamb of God, the great and
ire oblation without spot.

To show what other adumbrations, or rather glimmer-
gSj the heathen world had of the truth, in the midst of

' De Civ. Dei, 1. x., c. 29.

' As we shall hereafter show, chapter xii,

VOL. I. T

322 THE TEUE RELIGION.

SO much error, is it not admirable to hear them discoursing
of the depravedness of the human nature, the shame
and misery of its condition? That man, contrary to
all other creatures, had rather be covered with the
skins and spoils of beasts, than expose his own naked-
ness ! That the soul had once wings from Heaven,
but had broken them ! '

The Orphean verses mention two Tables of a Deca-
logue ; though, indeed, the two first commands of the
first, and last of the second, were not known to them.
To this add the wide spreading of circumcision, and
opinion of the world's conflagration, to precede its inun-
dation. That which Justia mentions of the Exodus of
the Israelites out of Egypt, — Solinus, Diodorus, and
others, of the destruction of Sodom, and several other
Scripture passages, — their reverence to a kind of
sabbath, or number seven. Our learned Andrews
shows how all their best and most rational ceremonies
flowed from the people of God ; whilst tapers at noon-
day, and funeral obsequies, and worship of idols, were
pagan customs ; and even temples themselves were but
sepulchres, whither people used to assemble, to call
upon the memory of the dead. So the pontificate came
to be translated from emperor to pope. They used
imposition of hands, as in the ordinances of Numa.
Their linigeri were a kind of surplices. We have an
excommunication in VirgU. Nay, they had exhorta-

* So Plato, Trismegistus, and Hierocles, speak of the lapse of
human kind, which Plotinus calls an impious rebellion.

THE TRUE KELIGION. 323

tions and preaching in their assemblies.' They cano-
nized renowned persons. They had their ambarvalia,
or processions, in which they bore their images about,
as prevalent for the averting of great calamities, and
used the kyrie eleeson in their Litanies.^ They ob-
served Lents ; dedicated first fruits, paid tithes to
Apollo, had lustrations, holy water, and baptism.
Tingit et ipsefideles suos, as Tertullian, speaking of the
unclean spirits.

Further yet, the heathen had notices of the insup-
portable discord in man's upper faculties, and lower
appetites, though they comprehended not from whence
it proceeded. The more refined among them abhorred
immoral actions, and taught that a pure and defecate
mind was the best and most agreeable sacrifice. In
what raptures of devotion they expressed themselves,
Simplicius ^ has given a specimen.''

Thus God left not Himself in any age without tes-
timony, nor man without a law, written in his heart,
besides what he might every day have read in the Book
of Nature. And, accordingly, some of them by this
alone, and by observing the miseries their own depraved-
ness brought them to, taught and lived excellently;

' See Valerius Maximus and Suetonius, who makes it a wonder
that Tiberius Csesar should offer sacrifice without it.

' Arrian. ' Com. in Epict..

' Plato (in Rep.) says that the proof of a virtuous and just man
appears in his sufferings — not merely being reviled, and stripped of
all, but gibbeted and murdered ignominiously ; and that such
would be happy hereafter.

t2

S24 THE TETJE EELIGION.

and had, as we all along have showed, profound and
glorious notions of the Deity.' But, having aU this by
guess, or as fragments collected from the Hebrews,
or patriarchal saints (amongst whom it is not unlikely
they might converse as well before as after their descent
into Egypt) they never had, or could have, any certainty
of what they so took up. Nor did this arrive at any
uniformity, or institution of established principles and
worship; though Jamblicus has called it so, with the
epithet of divine, pretending to revelation, where he
says, " We know nothing of ourselves ;" whilst he
knew not when, or whence, neither agreeing in time,
place, or testimony. They groped still in the dark, but
could not find it by any light they had from above.
And even Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca, and others of their
most penetrating philosophers, lost themselves when
they spake of another world. And though they held
future rewards, punishments, and receptacles of im-
mortality (if we may believe their books, deriding the
follies of the vulgar), and certainly went as far into the
search of truth as human nature, wit, and industry, are
capable of, unassisted by revelation, and immediate
light from Heaven; yet they did sacrifice with the
people, and mingled in all their superstitions. The

' See the admirable piece of Tully in his Offices, Tusculans, and
other grave discourses; with what Seneca, Plutarch, Xenophon,
Plato, Epictetus, Antoninus, Maximus Tyrius, and other of the
heathen have left behind, to condemn the more enlightened world
who believe less, and live worse, than heathens. Of all which
Eusebius de Prsep. Evang.

THE TRUE I:ELIGI0X. S2d

strictest sects among them, and even Socrates himself,
used to be intemperately angry. Cato would be drunk
at night : Seneca was extremely covetous : and some
used secret and abominable lusts. War, force, and
blood, were the effects of the much celebrated constitu-
tion among the Lacedemonians. They punished single
murders, but desolated whole countries with the sword.
And Aristotle asserts the lawfulness of killing bar-
barians. Rome itself came to its grandeur by bloodshed
and rapine, unjust and causeless wars, as against Cyprus
and Sardinia, by their own confession. Revenge they
esteemed a virtue, and fed themselves with the fights of
gladiators, cutting and mangling one another with the
greatest cruelty, as a most dehghtful spectacle. The
same notions among the Egyptians and Spartans per-
mitted and encouraged thefts ; and the Romans grew
so great by it, that Cicero confesses, should they have
restored what they wrongfully got, their state must
return to their ruder cottages again.

The disputes they had about the summum bonum, the
end and object they aspired to, Varro tells us amounted
to no less than three hundred controversies; some
placing it in the sensual pleasures of the present life,
as the Epicureans ; others in a sullen and feigned in-
dolency, as Zeno and the stoics, which even stocks and
stones may, after a sort, be said to enjoy as weU as
they. Others placed it in the knowledge of natural
causes, contemplation, and polity, as the peripatetics ; or,
as Plato, in the union and conjunction with the Deity,
without any terrene adherence. Nor, indeed, was it

326 THE TRUE RELIGION.

Plato's alone ; but even Aristotle himself, as he grew
older and wiser, acknowledges, as we read he did, that
God was the beginning, middle, and end of aU — the
alpha and omega.

Thus, some among the Gentiles came so near the
trath, as it cannot be denied they served the True God
in such virtuous lives, that our Blessed Lord tells his
disciples, he found not greater faith, no, not in Israel
Such was the devout Cornelius, and another centurion ;
and the more honest stoics and Platonists. Nor this
by chance or constitution only, but by cultivating such
principles as produced in them virtuous habits and
actions; in imitation of those perfections, which, by
the light of nature, they acknowledge to be in the God
of Nature. The Prince of the Peripatetics tells us the
supreme good consisted in an active life, conform i ng to
the rules of virtue. And it is affirmed, that his last
words were an option that the caxisa causarum would
have mercy on him ; so as some divines of great note
have conceived great hopes of the salvation of this
learned philosopher, besides many others.' And though
other less charitable reckoned all heroical virtues, with-
out an actual sanctifying grace, but as splendida peccata
(for so St. Augustine calls them) ; yet have divers,
before this father, thought otherwise. God's especial
grace co-operating with the light of nature, by which
they might possibly be conducted to those virtues and

' Zuinglius and the knowing Erasmus were of that opinion.
The learned Junius extends the salvation of Christ even to
heathen infants. See his Treatise de NaturA et Gratia.

THE TEUE RELIGION. S27

jood things, which were illustrious in them. Of this
lumber, doubtless, we may count Job, Rahab, Ruth,
fee, who were Gentiles. Nor do we find that God did
(vhoUy confine His gifts and favours to one people
absolutely, or that He might not inwardly sanctify
them, even at the last period. For as to that' of St.
Peter, of there being no other name imder Heaven
TJven to men whereby they might be saved than that
jf Christ, it was spoken in relation to the times of the
gospel, when our Blessed Lord, having broken down
the partition-wall, the Gentiles were freely admitted ;^
■md the gospel, being afterwards universally promul-
gated, the case was altered, and the very Jews, as well
as heathen and Gentiles, left without excuse ; God no
longer winlcing at their former blindness and obstinacy,
but expressly commanding men every where now to
repent, as St. Paul tells the Athenians.'

Besides, whoever among the more religious Gentiles
did attain this grace, we are to understand it as an
emanation of the merits of Christ ; though those who
received it might not so clearly comprehend from whom,
nor why: as neither do infants, the unbaptized, nor
idiots. It is evident that the Jews and all the world
were, about this time of our Blessed Saviour's coming
into the world, so monstrously wicked, malicious, un-
grateful, and universally perverted, that they had,
doubtless, been swept away with some universal cala-
mity, had not the Holy Jesus come at this fulness of
time, when they were so ripe for destruction, to make

' Act?, iv., 12. * Acts, X., 14. ^ Acts, xvii., 30.

828 THE TEUE RELIGION.

propitiation ; and by His doctrine, example, and mira-
cles, reform the depraved age. Add to this the Gen-
tiles, as weU as others, lying under an obligation of
using certain means. Some of them were pious and
devout persons, full of love to God ; and it is hard to
judge that any such should perish for the sin of Adam
merely, or their not being exactly conformable to the
first law ; but for refusing or abusing some mercy pur-
chased by Christ. It is, however, certain that the
grace of Christ is absolutely necessary to repentance
and sanctity, whatever the necessity of the knowledge
of His incarnation, and other mysteries of His institu-
tion be.

Nor aU this while was the merciful God wanting, I
say, even to the farthest heathen world ; so as to keep
from them the knowledge of doing as much as He ex-
pected from them in their present state j^ and as to the
rendering them capable of some inferior strictures and
degrees of happiness to come. Since to whom little is
given, of them little wiU be required.^

They had all the laws of Nature written in their
hearts, though they could not guess at the method God
used, to bring them to the true rehgion. And that the
Pagan world had these assistances, Tertullian proves
out of their own confessions ; so that most who perished
might accuse their own wilfulness. They had, besides,
no obscure hints from the sybils' prophesying, in divers
places, among the heathen ; if, at least, there were such

1 Acts, xiv., 17. Kom.. ii., 14, 15 — i., 18.
" Luke, xii., 48.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 329

early glimmerings ; though, I confess, few of the an-
cient philosophers had seen their writings, so carefully
reserved by the Romans in the archives of the capital,
as Lactantius tells us.'

CONCLUSION.

We have showed how infirm the religion of the
heathen was, and how far short it came of perfection ;
supported, as best it was, by Pythagoras and his fol-
lowers : neither did any other sect attain to any solid
truth beyond conjecture. They who thought they
came nearest, held that God, or some sublime being,
which they called the mind, pervaded all the parts of
matter, as the soul the body, — and so made the universe
a kind of rational animal. By this philosopher, every
fly and insect must be divine, as they were parts of
matter. Some of them were so senseless as to think
the fortuitous motion of senseless matter should proceed
to a habit of acting so wisely and regularly as to produce
this goodly system.

That man is no other than a dismal, forlorn creature,
composed of the same nonsense matter, without pro-
vidence, — and that there was nothing framed for use,
but as things and consequences happened ; — that the
plastic nature, or soul of the world, or (as Parmenides
calls it) Love, as a secondary created Deity, before
whose production necessity reigned, — that is, in better

' L. i., c. 6.

330 THE TRUE KELIGION.

theology, before the Spirit of God moved on the chaos,
and educed this orderiy system, — unguided by any
order or providence necessitated that motion of matter
which produced the world.

Nor was the crime of Socrates, as it is commonly re-
ported, his asserting the unity of the Deity (for he held
all the constellations to be gods), but for reproaching
his countrymen for making them authors of such pro-
digious lusts, intemperance, parricide, and other abomi-
nable actions. There was, in truth, nothing almost ia
nature which they did not ascribe Divine power to ;
no, not so much as a wish or imagination ; so far had
wild and endless superstition prevailed upon mankind.
Thus, Symmachus took mighty pains and made orations
to have persuaded that excellent emperor, Theodosius,
to erect a pompous altar to Victory — using this for
argument, that none should refuse to worship what he
wished for.

Thus, it has abundantly been shown how far remote
they were from any satisfactory and settled opinions,
either about God, or the world. And, consequently, their
religion was the same. Nor find we any of the most
zealous abettors of the Orphean and Gentile philology.
Porphyry, Hierocles, Celsus, and the rest, who could
produce any valid reply to Origen, Justin Martyr,
Arnobius, Minutius, and those other Christian apolo-
gists who contended with them.

As for Julian, his fantastic singularities were out of
monstrous pride and opinion of his own pedantic learn-
ing ; being, at last, become so very insupportably inso-

THE TRUE RELIGION. S31

lent, as to fancy himself the great Alexander, by a
transmigration of that hero's soul into him.

Celsus was an Epicurean atheist, and it angered him
to the heart there should appear a doctrine which should
overthrow the security of being exempt from all im-
punity after a flagitious life. Whilst, after all, I find
not one of them who either did or could deny the
miracles ascribed to our Blessed Saviour, or that there
was such a person. But, whenever they were pinched
upon those undeniable matters of fact, they said it was
his skill in magic, and I know not what.

To conclude— The religion of the Gentiles was, as
we have showed, either taught or framed to volup-
tuousness, flattery, uncleanness, cruelty, poetic fictions,
to fear and passion, ambition, pride, pomp, and vain-
glory, and to support their tyranny (for which men,
whose breath is in their nostrils, would be reputed gods),
or to curiosity, vain philosophy, and gnosticism. Specu-
lative men were fond of their opinions ; and politicians
had secular ends to serve, as well as the crafty and
avaricious priests, who governed the ignorant, managed
the oracles, and abused them all. And though some-
thing they did to advance morality, it was but amongst
the few, and but for human, variable, and vain-glorious
ends. This we find in the best of them — Cicero,
Seneca, Plutarch, full of excellent precepts and docu-
ments as they are ; yet betraying self-conceit, praise,
and affectation. Plato, who approached nearest to the
truth, durst communicate his sentiments to a few only
of his intimates; and Socrates, dying, knew not whi-

332 THE TRUE RELIGION.

ther he went. The most sublime of Epictetus's reli-
gious discourses tend only to render their wise man con-
summate in the moral virtues, to which yet the most
perfect of them could not attain.

Besides, the very best of these sapient men pretended
no virtue from their gods, who were proved to be more
wicked than men. And, therefore, had recourse to
Virtue, which they celebrated not as a goddess, but for
her own self. This was still but a kind of idolatry ;
seeing God being the only great and sublime principle
of our duty and obligation, real virtue is not communi-
cable, but as it relates to His perfections and commands
alone, — and not for the sake of any other whatsoever.
"VYith all this, the Gentile religion had little or no in-
spection into the heart, nor took cognizance of thoughts,
speculative lusts, and other crimes, which they did not
put into the catalogue of sins. Nor esteemed they
humility a virtue ; vain-glory and the praise of men
was the utmost end of all their labour, as Cicero
ingenuously confesses.' And so, Aristotle places all
felicity in the perfections of the mind and body, but
this only as it respects man in his present state. And
were it true, yet were it not obtainable here, since
there is no single person who could possibly expect
such an entire union of aU just perfections in himself,
as are not to be found in all men altogether. They
prayed the gods for health of their bodies, but not to
better their minds, and make them virtuous : tJiat they
affirmed that they could do of themselves, without him.
' Pro Archia Poeta.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 338

As to the stoical happy man upon the rack, and In
Phalarls's bull, with all his exalted virtue, what more
ridiculous ? Heaven and Hell by this are made the
same indolency and stupid senselessness with cruciating
pain: but, who can dwell with everlasting burnings?
Verily, the notion is quite against humanity, since the
union of the natural good is absolutely requisite to the
moral ; but the knowledge of this is, as we have shown,
clouded with doubts. Epicurus' sensual pleasure was
exploded, as relating only to this present life, and what
is so can neither be true felicity nor true religion. It
is, therefore, no longer strange, that so many wise and
learned philosophers, with all their deep speculations
and reasonings, could not lead one city to the knowledge
of the true God ; or so much as gather a few disciples
to embrace and practise the virtues which they taught.
Plotinus, with all the favour of the empire (Galienus
and his empress having a project of founding a Plato-
polis, where all the laws of that philosopher should be
taught and professed), could never effect what yet our
blessed Lord did, not only without all human aid and
assistance, but against the greatest contradictions, dis-
couragement, and opposition imaginable, both of learned
and unlearned adversaries, — men and devils, — establish-
ing His holy religion in so short a time, with such
mean and unlikely instruments ; and so universally,
as all those great geniuses, with all their pretences to
virtue, could never accomplish. So great is the truth,
and it will prevail.

Thus was philosophy, the religion of the wiser

334 THE TRUE RELIGION.

Gentiles, as the law of the Decalogue to the Jews.
But God's law had been sufficient to render both
happy ; nor would their precepts, we see, with aU their
acquired learning, lead them to the perfection and
sovereign good, which they so earnestly sought. "We
do not yet, as we have said, pronounce peremptorily
concerning the absolute evil state of those who amongst
them endeavoured to live up to the principles of the
moral virtues ; it being certain it wUl be more tolerable
for Sodom and Gomorrah ; much more for those honest
heathen, than for wicked and dissolute Christians.
Besides, we find not that all, even under the Mosaic
dispensation, had faith in the death and merits of Christ
for the remission of sins. The disciples of our blessed
Lord themselves had none, till after His resurrection
from the dead. The Jews themselves, rigid as they
were, had charitable thoughts of the proselytes of the
gate, and those who observed the seven precepts of the
sons of Noah. And, above all, the gracious God has
ways and methods of salvation that we know not of,
and which are past finding out. Add to this, that
there was very little concerning the attributes of God,
His creation, government of the world, &c., contained
now in the Old Testament, believed by Abraham and
the patriarchs, but what we have shown to have been
owned and acknowledged by the virtuous and learned
GentUes. Nor is there any excellency in whatever the
Greeks, Romans, and other nations, wits and philo-
sophers, have written, but what is contained and infi-
nitely refined and improved in the Christian doctrine.

THE TRUE EELIGION. 335

In all events, God is just and infinitely good to aU ;
and the merits of Christ of as infinite extent, and His
mercies over all His works. How deficient the heathen
were in all the parts of the true worship, — how full of
superstition and idolatry, pride and vanity, and incon-
stancy, this chapter has sufficiently declared. Whereas,
the true religion is ever the same, invariable, and like
itself in every part, — speaks only of God, — regards
nothing but God, — receives all from God alone, attri-
butes all to God, namely, body, soul, words, yea, even
our thoughts, actions, passions, yea, life itself; all its
revelations tending only to His glory.

Moreover, the true religion does not flatter, is not
sensual, but curbs and contradicts our vicious and most
endeared appetites and inclinations, — roots up injus-
tice, avarice, pride, and passion, and the rest of our
corruptions, — does not nourish vain curiosity, polity, or
worldly craft, — but, being pure and simple, loves and
embraces virtue for the love of God.

The books and oracles that teach us the true reli-
gion, in a long and ample consequence of holy authors,
writing and living in such distance of time, yet leave us
no trace of human passion or interest, but such as
breathe of piety and all the evangelical graces: and
yet, speaking with the highest authority and assurance,
have no end but the glory of God. Their writings are
not affected, nor set off, and refined with rhetorical
flourishes, — her rites are not pompous, nor service
theatrical, to allure ; but simple, vulgar, and adapted to
the meanest capacity, in things of most necessary con-

336 THE TKUE EELIGION.

cern ; and yet none more sublime, none more grave and
majestical.

Now, since it was not possible the heatben, learned
as they were, yet blinded by such gross superstition,
should ever have emerged out of those prejudices, with-
out some brighter light than that of mere nature, —
without some supernatural means, — Almighty God,
who would not altogether abandon His poor creatures
to Satan's implacable malice, as appears by His con-
tinued kindnesses, to glorify the riches of His grace,
and lest the world should be totally corrupted, and for
the accomplishment of His own most wise and eternal
purpose, was pleased to reveal His mind, show us the
way to the true and sovereign good, by giving the
world a more clear and bright idea of Himself, with
rules by which to govern ourselves in all capacities, and
in doctrine, agreeable to the dictates of reason, and
the dignity of our nature. And this doctrine He has
confirmed by miracles, and other convincing circum-
stances, as we are now come to show in the following
chapter.

That we have mentioned little of the Gentiles of tins
day, spread over divers parts of the known, and uni-
versally over the unknown world, has been, for that we
find hardly any of their superstitions and opinions of
the Deity more extravagant than that of the ancient
pagans ; all alike irrational and inconsistent with the
worship of the true God. The Mahometan Impostor
has mixed divers Christian tenets with the Jew and
Gentile ; and though worshipping but one God, yet the

THE TRUE RELIGION. 337

laws of that religion are a rhapsody of egregious non-
sense — that of the Brachniins, in Persia and Mogul
country, fragments of the ancient Pythagorean. The
rest are purely Gentile, or, more plainly, barbarous, —
even the most civilized among them, as the Chinese,
Incas of Peru, and some other. And of the merely
Ethnic, their religions are so various and extravagant
that, not being worthj^ the consideration of rational
men, we have not thought it necessary to enlarge iipon
them. Such we reckon the savages of Brazil, and other
parts of America, Samojetia, Indian, Japonian, Siamese,
inward Africa, Arabia, &c.' Only it is observal)le, that
most religions believed that suffering and difficulties
were necessary to obtain happiness. Witness the chains,
uneasy postures, cruel sacrifices, fasts, severe lives of
the Indians, Turks, &c., — lancings, burnings, pulling
out of their own eyes, on sight of Mecca ! — How gentle
the Christian religion, which teaches only to bear
afflictions when sent us ! Not to force them on our-
selves, unless such as are useful as medicines and
remedies to keep exorbitances under, our sabbaths
spiritual, and the like. Veritatem religio quwrit.^ To
conclude with the CoUect for Good Friday :

" Oh, merciful God, who hast made all men, and
hatest nothing that Thou hast made, nor wouldest the

' Those who are curious, may read of these in the relations of
Paul Venetus, Leo, Purchas, Gage, Hackluyt, Kircher, Shirley,
Tavemier, Thevenot, Sandys, M. Jardin, Tachard, and divers
others.

" " The end and aim of religion is truth."

VOL. I. Z

338 THE TEUE RELIGION.

death of a sinner ; but rather that he should be con-
verted and live ; have mercy upon aU Jews, Turks,
infidels, and heretics, and take from them aU ignorance,
hardness of heart, and contempt of Thy word ; and so
fetch them home, blessed Lord, to Thy flock, that they
may be saved among the remnant of the true Israelites,
and be made one fold under one Shepherd, Jesus
Christ, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee
and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end,
Amen .'"

THE TRUE RELIGION.

339

CHAPTER VII.

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES AND ORACLES OF GOD, WHICH
SHOW US THE TRUE SUPERNATURAL RELIGION AND
SOVEREIGN GOOD.

SECTION I. 1. WHAT IS MEANT BY SCRIPTURES?

2. WHO IS THE AUTHOR OF THEM?

3. WHO WERE THE PENMEN AND WRITERS OF THEM?
SECTION II. THEY WERE ASSERTED TO BE THE ORACLES OP

GOD.

1. BY THE PROPHETS.

2. BY MIRACLES.

3. BY THEIR WONDERFUL PRESERVATION.

4. BY THE STYLE,

5. BY THEIR HARMONY AND COHERENCE.

6. BY THE MATTER AND SUBJECT.

7. BY THE EFFECTS AND DESIGN.

8. BY THEIR TESTIMONY.

9. BY THEIR ANTIQUITY, AND SUFFRAGE OF HIS-

TORIANS.
10. BY TRADITION.
SECTION m. 1. OF THE BOOKS.

2. COPIES.

3. EDITIONS.

4. TRANSLATIONS.

SECTION IV. 1 . INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE.
2. RULE OF FAITH.

SECTION I.^

If there be a God, a world created by Him, rational
creatures, and souls immortal in it ; an aU-disposiiiEi^

' Consult Judge Hale's Chief End of Man. Thesis., ii.. p. 20.
Contemplations, Part tl.

Z2

340 THE TRUE RELIGION.

Providence that governs ; If there be a future state
after this life, an account to be given how men have
behaved themselves in the present state ; if there be
rewards to the good, and punishments for the wicked,
and that to this great God is due religious worship, and
among the many pretences to this worship, but one true
and acceptable way, the next thing t9 be enquired after,
is by whom, where, and how, we may come to the cer-
tain knowledge of it. In a word, to know how this God
wUl be served, and what that law and those commands
are, which His creature is to observe and obey, as a
rule to walk by, and his real interest so to do.

Now, natural reUgion, as we have shown, teaching
us that there is a God, who is a just, holy, eternal, wise,
and Omnipotent Being, that after this short race of
ours there is a life to come, where aU our actions will
be severely examined, and rewards accordingly distri-
buted, nay, that the whole mass of mankind being de-
praved and indisposed to the end, for which, as rational
creatures, we were put into the world ; namely, to
glorify God by our conformity to His perfections, as
the Supreme and Sovereign God, but which Nature
only so depraved cannot lead us to, it follows, that
there is then a further supernatural religion, and reve-
lation necessary, whereby we may come to the know-
ledge of the Divine pleasure: and how, by guiding
and governing our actions, we may arrive nearer that
original rectitude, and, consequently, nearer to that
happy and desirable condition and Sovereign Good we
aspire to.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 341

Xow that is the only true and supernatural religion^
ivhich is able to work in our natures such graces as
[qualify us for that blessed state. And to find out this
lias ever been, and yet is, the grand inquiry, and con-
troversy of the world. Though, in the mean time, so infi-
nitely merciful has the Creator been to His creature, that,
IS Moses tells the Israelites, this word and will of His is
neither hid, nor far from any of us ; not in Heaven, that
we should say. Who shall go up thither, to bring it down
to us, that ice may hear and do it ? Neitlier is it beyond
the sea, that we should say. Who shall go over the sea for
us, and bring it unto us ? But the Word is very nigh
unto us, even in our mouth and hearts To the same
effect St. Paul^ speaking, not of the law (as did Moses)
which concerned the Jews only, but of the righteous-
ness of faith, or religion, which the Apostles preached ;
and is that word of life, that Divine revelation, which
is not repugnant to the light of Nature, but which per-
fects and supplies its defects : since though by that
alone we may come to the knowledge that there is a
God, and therefore to be worshipped, yet does it not
teach us how, and in what majiner, He is to be adored
and served ; which only the Scriptures do.

It is then our great concern seriously to examine the
truth of those Divine records, and accurately to search
them ; seeing in them it is we hope to have eternal
life : these are they which testify of God, as dictated
alone by the Spirit of God; and therefore, lest we
should be imposed on, by believing pretended spirits,
^ Deut., XXX., 11, 12, 13, 14. ^ Kom., x., 6, 7.

342 THE TKUE EELIGION.

we are to try the spirits, whether they be of God. For
(as St. John' has warned us) there are many deceivers
gone out into the world, such false Apostles,^ and de-
ceitful workers, and other impostors; whereas, if an
angel from Heaven itself should teach any other reli-
gion than what the Scriptures teach, so far from being
received or hearkened to, he is to be accursed.^

I. SCRIPTURES.

By the Scripture we understand those Sacred
Volumes, which contain those lively oracles, immedi-
ately received from God, the great Legislator ; contain-
ing the several treaties and contracts that have been
made between God and man ; and teach the true prin-
ciples of that faith and supernatural religion which
leads to eternal happiness. The Scriptures, I say, are
those writings which declare the whole wiU of God
and the mysteries of salvation.*

It is called the Word of God, because they were first
spoken by Him ; and Scriptures, as being written by
those who heard it. Nor this by the will and contriv-
ance of man, cunningly devised for secular purposes
and worldly interest, but as holy men spake and writ
what they heard, or as was agreeable to what they
heard, or as moved and inspired by the Holy Ghost. ^
For God, who at sundry times and in divers places,
speaking in times past unto the Fathers by the Pro-

' I. John, iv., 1. ^ S. Matt., xxiv., 11-15; II. Cor., xi., 13.
' Gal., i., 8. * I. Tim., iu., 16.

* II. Pet., i., 16-21 ; II. Tim., iii., 16.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 343

phets, has in these latter times spoken unto us by His
Son. ' Hence we learn

2. AVho is the Author of them, namely, the Eternal
God, by Him whom He hath appointed heir of all
things, by whom also He (that is, God the Father)
made the worlds.' Who is the brightness of His glory,
the express image of His person, upholding aU things
by the word of His power^. And what this Author
spake has been confirmed by those who heard him,
namely :

3. The Holy Penmen.^ To these God also bore
witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers
miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His
own wilL By these various manners may safely be
understood the ministry of holy angels, the pro-
phets, voices, urim and thummim, dreams, visions,
and the like. These were the means by which it
pleased God to reveal His mind; especially after the
time of Moses, who is said to hear God speak face to
face'') that is familiarly not in dreams, or by other me-
diation); since, before this, the long-lived patriarchs
might not only receive the oracles of God by tradition
from their ancestors, and so had no need of committing
them to writing. But, when men's lives were abbre-
viated for their passing them so wickedly ; and, conse-
quently, their memory impaired, and generations spread
and separated, and that governors and governments

' Heb., i., 1 ; Luke, i., 70. » Heb., i., 1-4.

^ * AytoypdcjiOL-

* Exod., xxxiii., 11 ; Num., vii., 89; xii. 8.

S-ii THE TRUE EELIGIOIs.

were changed, which must needs corrupt former tradi-
tion, and likewise to prevent the impostures of atheists
and heretics, it pleased God to order, that both the his-
tory of the creation, church, and laws, should be com-
mitted to writing. Some of it, namely, the Decalogue,
He wrote with His own finger upon tables of stone ;
then by the HagiograpM, Moses, and the Prophets ;
and, lastly, by the Theodidacti, the Apostles, and Evan-
gelists, from the mouth of Christ Himself, and the in-
spiration and impulse of His Holy Spirit. For that it
should be from any other ; or, that the doctrine con-
tained in the Sacred Volumes was propagated upon the
score of any secular interest of the penmen, (whatso-
ever opportunities they may have had to do it) will be
sufficiently disproved if we consider the persons and
characters of even the greatest and most conspicuous
of them, Moses, Samuel, Elias, Jeremiah, and the rest,
of whom we read in the Old Testament. The first
from an adopted prince, reputed son of Pharaoh's
daughter, educated in that great court, abandons ib all,
choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of
God, than to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season.'
What his troubles and difficulties were, to manage the
charge God had imposed on him, among a stiff-necked
and most perverse people, we may read at large in the
histories of Exodus, Numbers, &c. Samuel had like-
wise to deal with the same discontented nation. Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and most of the rest, after aU the
difficulties they went through for warning the princes
' Heb., xi,, 24, 25, 26.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 345

and people of their sins, were either persecuted, impri-
soned, or murdered. And then for the penmen of the
New Testament, the Holy Apostles and Evangelists,
we find not above one of them all who came to a na-
tural death. And (to use the words of the author to
the Hebrews) others had trial of cruel mockings, and
scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonments ;
they were stoned, they were sawn in sunder, were
tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered
about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute,
afflicted, tormented.' And those, of whom the world
was not worthy for their exemplary virtue and piety,
St. Paul tells us, in another place, were counted as the
filth and ofFscouring of the world, suffered the loss
of all things, in stripes, tumults, labours, watchings,
fastings.^

And, indeed, both for their callings, as well as per-
sons, they were most of them poor herdsmen, or igno-
rant fishermen ; and who were to teach and profess a
religion, which they were sure was so little advan-
tageous to their worldly interest, that (as was foretold
them) it would not only expose them to the loss of the
little they had, but of their lives, and all that could be
dear to them in this world. In short, they were
counted so many madmen, that in such circumstances
(for besides this they were very illiterate and simple,
many of them) they should hope to plant a religion,
which spake of nothing but suffering, contempt, and

• Heb., xi., 36, 37, 38.

' I. Cor., iv., 10-13; 11. Cor., xi., 23-33.

346 THE TRUE EELIGION.

scorn, that should prevail over a voluptuous and aban-
doned age. But thus they preached through countries,
cities, courts, not sparing kings themselves.

What impostor could write such a book ? "What a
madness were it to imagine that the most admirable
writings, and designed to persuade to the love of God
and our neighbours, to inspire zeal and goodness, should
be supported by impostors, without any design of in-
terest to the authors ! Consider we, then, that all they
writ savoured of the greatest innocency and candour
imaginable, breathing of piety, zeal, and holiness; dis-
sembling nothing, but confessing and recording even
their own faults and weaknesses, with all their lessening
circumstances ; and distinguishing the dictates of their
own reasonings from that of the sacred spirit;' leaving
several instances of their sincerity, as may be farther
seen in the life of Moses, Daniel, Jeremiah, St. Paul,
and others.

Besides, it seems not only very unlikely, but almost
whoUy impossible, that so many humble, holy, and un-
concerned men, living at such distances of times and
places, should universally agree to deceive both them-
selves and aU their relations, posterity, and all ages
since, for no manner of advantage, but to the manifest
endangering of their own lives and liberties, had not
the avithors been both divinely inspired and assisted.

That they pretended no worldly consideration, is
farther manifest, not only by what they suifered, while
their Divine Master was conversant amongst them ; but
' I. Cor., vii., 6.

THE TKUE RELIGION. S-t?

by their persisting to propagate His doctrine, after He
was departed from them : and all their hopes and ex-
pectations of earthly felicity vanished with Him, whilst
they fancied it had been He who should have redeemed
Israel, and restored it to its former splendour.' Far
from this, He tells them they must look for no such
matter here, but, on the contrary, that they should be
scorned, plundered, enslaved, betrayed by their nearest
relations, put to death and persecuted with that exceed-
ing rage; and men should think they did God good
service to kill and murder them.^ For all this they
desisted not preaching and publishing what they writ.
What could be more ingenuous, more disinterested,
with greater proof of the unparalleled sincerity of the
writers, and of the truth of what they taught ?

Lastly, who is it that doubts that Aristotle, Cirsar,
Cicero, Livy, Plutarch, and the rest of those famous
men, were authors and writers of those books which
go under their names ; whilst none of them can show
such ample testimony as the Scriptures that they were
penned by those whose titles they bear ? And whether
they were the works of those persons, in every para-
graph, does not so nearly concern mankind as those Holy
Oracles do, namely, the eternal salvation of our souls.
And therefore it is they have been so diligently kept
and examined. There are controversies about profane
authors and books, yet of whom have we heard that
would suffer martyrdom to assert them. Had any of
the books of Scriptui-e been supposititious, how comes
' Luke, xxiv., 21. ' Acts, xxvi., 10, 11, 12.

348 The true religion.

it that no such doubt appeared from any living in their
author's time, or soon after ? That two or three epistles
of the New Testament raise some scruple, is an evident
proof of the authenticity of all the rest. It is certain
they were penned before the destruction of Jerusalem.
And in aU the disputes of the orthodox against the
heresies of the Gnostics, MUlenarians, Arians, the con-
troversy about Easter, which so sadly divided the
Church, and appeared so early, none of them yet ques-
tioned a book of Holy Scriptures ; nor could any have
corrupted them, but we should have heard of it by
their adversaries. And, lastly, supposing mistakes of
scribes, and various readings, yet so has the Providence
of God conducted it that no essential part of religion
is weakened by them. Yea, put case all the copies
were lost, yet have we most, if not all, entirely recited
by one or other of the Fathers, and critical writers,
citing them upon occasion.

Thus, for the persons of the penmen. The next
argument of the veracity of the Sacred Books is in
prophecy.

SECTION II. THE SCEIPTUEES ASSERTED TO BE
THE OKACLES OF GOD.

I. BY PROPHECIES.

"We do not intend hj prophecy here the means whereby
revealed truth has been conveyed and revealed to us :'

' The learned Mr. Smith has copiously treated of this in his
Discourses out of the Rabbins, in thirteen chapters.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 349

nor mean we only what St. Peter calls a more sure
word of prophecy ;'^ but the wonderful fulfilling and
accomplishment of what the Scriptures have foretold
should come to pass ; and which, for having punctually
so happened, is another pregnant and undeniable proof
of its being celestial and divine. Thus, to Adam,
Abraham, Israel, and many more, was promised the
Messias. Consider, too, with what consideration the
divided land was prepared with laws and constitutions
so many years before they entered Canaan, and then
with how high a hand and what success; and what
happened to Jacob's offspring according to the predic-
tions,^ — what, also, after Moses befel them for idolatry.^
Here will come in the re-building of Jericho.' The
naming of Josias three hundred years before he was
born.' And that Cyrus should deliver captived Israel,^
and re-build the demolished Temple, against all appear-
ance, at the very period of seventy years,'' a hundred
before that prince appeared. In like manner, the
famous prophecy of Daniel concerning the Persian,
Greek, and Roman monarchies, with other predictions
of what should happen in the later times, yet every day
fulfilling. Not to insist on Hosea, Zachariah, and the
rest of the minor prophets — That the glory of the latter
Temple should be greater than the former,^ and fulfilled
in the Messias.' What action happened in our Blessed

' n. Pet., i., 19. " Gen., xlix. ' Deut., xxxii. .

' Josh, iv., 26. Compare I. Kings, xvi., 34.

' I. Kings, xiii., 2. e Isaiah, xlv., 1.

' Jer., XXV., 12. * Hagg., ii., 9. ' Luke, ii., 22.

350 THE TRUE RELIGIOlSr.

Saviour's life on earth which was not foretold by David,
Isaiah, Zacharias, Daniel, and other prophets ; together
with the cutting off the Gentiles, rejection of the
Jewish Temple, metropolis, nation, in so stupendous a
manner as to continue an execration to this very day.'
Lastly, that so many prophets should rise amongst
them, tiU Christ, who was to he the scope and end
of all that went before, should come ; and not so much
as one should ever since appear to give them any
hope or consolation — now almost seventeen hundred
years.

All which, computed and happening since the canon
of the Scriptures has been finished, are irrefragable
proofs of its being the word of God.

From these, we come to that of Miracles.

2. MIRACLES.

jMIracles, the event of prophecies, were performed,
not only by the Almighty Author, but by his ministers,
penmen, and prophets. Our Blessed Lord wrought
more in one year (and, I think, in one day) than did aU
who went before or ever since. By these such multi-
tudes were converted, churches gathered, many years
before any Scriptures were extant, as now they are;
the Christian religion was asserted, and also by the sud-
den ceasing of Satan's oracles, and silence of his lying
spirits ; the conversion of whole nations to the faith,

' Eusebius has so fully treated of those innumerable texts,
through all the prophets, in his second book, "De Dem. Evang.,"
that there is nothing more evident.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 851

effected without any external force of arms, eloquence,
or human wisdom, but by plain words and the fooKsh-
ness of preaching (as esteemed), and the most con-
trary means to attain any thing men aim at, that can be
imagined ; the greatest empires were subdued ; princes'
sceptres made to stoop to the ignominious cross ; and
all the pompous Pagan rites, that had reigned so many
ages, and prevailed upon the blinded world, crumbled
to nothing in a moment, as it were, after our Blessed
Saviour's Ascension. The little stone hewn out of the
mountain without hands, the doctrine of the despised
Jesus, and of a dozen poor fishermen, — suffering mar-
tyrs, and constant confessors, — without weapon, or what
the world calls wit, overthrew the politics of statesmen,
the subtlety of philosophers, and all the wisdom of the
wise.

Consider the prodigious change this word of God,
these holy books, made in the world, when it pleased
Him to call the Gentiles to the knowledge of them. In
all countries, in aU ages, sexes, and conditions of men,
it gave courage and strength to the weak and fearful ;
so as little children and tender virgins have braved the
most exquisite tortures, rather than depart a httle from
the faith. It was no sooner pubHshed than it fermented
like the leaven our Saviour speaks of in the lump. The
seed was no sooner sown but it sprung up like corn in
a hundredfold, and of a small grain, as of mustard-seed,
became a tree, sjjreading its branches over the whole
earth. It pierced, like lightning, both for swiftness
and irresistible force, so as, TertuUian tells us, it en-

352 THE TEUE RELIGION.

tered castles, cities, camps, palaces, senates, schools,
and private houses, like the sunbeams, and nothing
■was hid from the heat thereof, its light and operation.
This powerful and Di\'ine Word healed diseases, raised
the dead, enlightened the blind, cleansed the leper, in-
fused supernatural knowledge, gave gifts to men, gifts
of strange tongues, whereby it was propagated through
all nations ; gifts of interpretation of tongues, gifts of
working miracles, of discerning spirits, of casting out
devils.

In a word, it reformed the most obstinate and incre-
dulous sinners ; raised the himible and dejected, for-
tified the faint and weak, puUed down the mighty ; and
that which was supported by laws and edicts, the
heathen superstition, though fortified by arms, cemented
by interest, and maintained by subtle arguments of
human wisdom, and aU the cunning of the devil,
which, for so many thousand years, had taken pos-
session, fell, Hke Dagon before the ark, to flatness
and nothing. For the word of God is sharp as a
two-edged sword, to the dividing in sunder of the soul
and spirit, the joints and the marrow, discerning the
very thoughts and intentions of the heart.' Finally,
it is to those who duly receive it the power of God to
salvation.

Now, as to this extraordinary gift of miracles by vir-
tue of this Word, and those who propagated the faith,
we read of many whom our Blessed Lord and His
apostles had healed and raised from the dead, who lived
' Heb., iv., 12.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 353

confimi it to them, till near Trajan's reign.' And
iven the story of Agbarus of Edessa, as related by
Eusebius, that our Blessed Saviour, being addressed
jy letter, sent Thaddeus to cure him, (though not so ex-
Dressly named in the Gospel) has nothing in it which can
ustly be reproved ; that grave Author affirming that
le found the passage in a record at Edessa, in the Syrian
tongue, and translated it into Greek. This is likewise
ittested by St. Ephrem, and so abundantly cleared to
be a truth by the learned Valesius, and others, as ad-
mits of no further doubt. And such miraculous and
supernatural gifts remained long after among the faith-
ful, as long as it was necessary ; namely, till the Gospel
laad become universally planted and received ; its sound
^oing into all lands.

Justin Martyr, who suffered 165 years after Christ,
and Irenaeus (a.d. 206) assure us that the gifts of pro-
phecy, tongues, and healing remained even to their
times ; mentioning, also, the ejection of devils, and the
raising of the dead. As to their since being ceased or
very rare, a plain and full reason is given by an apostle
himself, where he tells us that miracles are for them who
do not believe, not for those who do, and are already con-
verted. Nor is it reasonable that the universal laws and
ordinances of Nature, and in their course, should, without
great and urgent cause, be changed for the humour of
every petulant sceptic, when there is already sufficient

' So Quadratus (a. d. 127), a disciple of the Apostles, affirms
in his Apology to the Emperor Adrian, which stopped the perse-
cution against the Christians.

VOL. I. A A

354 THE TRUE RELIGION.

evidence to oblige our belief. Were it otherwise, every
individual person, to the end of the world, must have,
forsooth, the miracle shown, to gain his assent to what aU
his forefathers, for so long a tract of time, had believed.
This were to make cheap the wonderful works of God,
and they would cease to be miracles.

Besides, as for miracles ruining the truth of things,
they are still but extrinsical, and would be invalid
without that self-evident impression of the same
Divine power, wisdom, and goodness of God, intrin-
sically effecting a holy life. Besides, whatever doc-
trine or religion consists in beheving things future,
absent, and invisible, is to be known and maintained by
faith in Divine Revelation, and not altogether by imme-
diate and sensible evidence only, or mere discourse.

In the mean while, aU true Christians have a kind of in-
ternal knowledge, from the faithfulness of the truth and
purity of the Gospel, and their more illuminated, quick-
ened, and sanctified souls, to attest the Divine Truth.
Indeed, to prove the Scripture by this alone, one cannot
avoid the circle ; since they who would assert truth by
testimony of the Holy Scriptures cannot prove the
Trinity but by the Scripture. How should infidels be
converted, who have not the means to attain these
proofs ? Therefore, to convince them has God ordained
miracles. Notwithstanding, as to us, such a degree of
faith as powerfully operates on our lives is to be im-
puted by us, no less than by them, to the grace of God
alone, and to His Holy Spirit ; though not as working
always and immediately, but in rendering the means

THE TRUE RELIGION. 355

effective. And if this be only human faith, proceeding
from natural certainty, what can be divine ? — since man
can but certainly beheve a thing to be truth, and so
believe as to live accordingly. If there be a moral be-
lief, let men show a more convincing.

A third assertion of the undoubted truth of Scrip-
tures is their wonderful preservation.

3. PRESERVATION.

The Jews would die a thousand deaths rather than
depart one jot or tittle from their law. And the whole
body of the Levites were, therefore, the guardians of
the Holy Books, which were no less than seven times
read over, yearly ; an express injunction prohibiting any
the least addition or dimunition, notwithstanding the
changes, divisions, separations, captivities, sects, scliisms,
and other disturbances among them, during so long a
tract of time. They carried them wherever they went,
distributed innumerable copies, most accurately exa-
mined (even to the number of the very letters and their
places, how oft soever they occurred), so as it is not
imaginable they should be universally corrupted. Nay,
so careful has been the Divine Author to preserve those
sacred fountains pure (a drop of which is never to fail
or pass away), that Providence so ordered it, that the
Jews themselves, who were so long their depositories,
have not perverted so much as one of those texts, which
60 plainly speak of the coming of the Messiah, whom
their fathers crucified.'

' See Mr. Thorndike's Epilogue.

aa2

356 THE TRUE RELIGION.

How is it to be imagined that a people, so dispersed,
errant, without leader, country, priest, or prophet (nay,
without distinction of tribes, and almost without know-
ing of themselves), should so exactly have conserved the
Mosaic law, and other holy writings, but that they beheld
the Land of Promise as their own, and had title to it,
only by the Scriptures, which were their evidence ? — I
say, how is it imaginable they should neglect the care
of preserving those records ? Both prince and people
were, to this end, among others, commanded universally
to read and meditate on them day and night, abroad
and at hojne ; so as it was impossible they should forget
them. They were often, indeed, reproved for their
traditions, but never suspected of corrupting the Scrip-
tures. And, as to the New Testament, many authentic
copies, Tertullian assures us, were extant even in his
time.

Thus have the Holy Writings been preserved, in
spite of all the malice and purposes of wicked men, and
even of the profanest potentates, who have had it in
their power to suppress what they pleased. But neither
the rage of tyrants (industriously set on it, as Julian
and others), nor the jflames of fire, nor long tract of
time, could make any impression on the Scriptures, or
extinguish their light, because it came from God. The
world shall pass away, but the Word of God shall
endure for ever;' though men and devils conspire to
destroy it.

The Jews as to the New Testament, the heretics
' Luke, xxi., 33.

THE TRUE EELIGION. 357

both to New and Old, have showed their calumny
and spite. Herod, by his cruelty to murder the author ;
Satan, by his temptations ; and the Roman Emperors,
by their ten bloody persecutions to extirpate His dis-
ciples, so as books never met with greater contradic-
tions ; and that, because it came to destroy the king-
dom of the prince of this world, and set up that of
Christ. Thus we read that, in one single province in
Egypt only, when Dioclesian would have burnt all
their Bibles, seven thousand rather chose to die and
suifer martyrdom than give them up.

It was by a no less signal providence that, to prepare
the Gentiles for its reception, and as the coming of the
Messiah, according to the prophecies drew near, it
pleased God to stir up that learned prince Ptolemy
Philadelphus, to have those glorious Oracles (tiU now
peculiar to the Jews) translated into Greek, which was
then the only learned and universal language; and
that, by the persuasion of Demetrius Phalereus, to
enrich that prince's famous library at Alexandria,
whereof he was keeper.'

Another notable means of preserving the sacred
text has been the Masora, or critique, so called, deliver-
ing the genuine writing and reading ; a work of admi-
rable use, as containing all the minutiae of verses, sen-
tences, points, accents, even to a single iota, to prevent

' The history of this work we have related by Eusebius (De
Prsep. Evang.), PhOo, and Josephus ; and the exceptions against
the suspected part of it (as legendary) in Scaliger's Notes on
Eusebius, and Bishop Usher on the Septuagint.

358 THE TRUE RELIGION.

all addition or subtraction, so as to have numbered how
many times the same letter occurs in the Old Testa-
ment. This traditional critique they hold to have been
as ancient as Moses himself, and thence continued to
the later prophets. But however this be suspected,
it is likely it might be about the time of Esdras, or
soon after ; or rather near the Maccabees, about which
time the sect of the Pharisees sprung up, and who have
since filled the Masora with a world of trifles. As for
the New Testament, besides innumerable editions and
translations, that one Concordance of Buxtorf is worth
all the Mazorites of the old. To this add Keri and
Kelib, which are, likewise, criticisms about letters,
consonants, and words, as what are to be read, written,
passed over, and neither read nor written ; famed also
to be from Moses, though, in truth, not more ancient
than Talmud. Besides these, there are the critiques of
Ben Ascher and Ben Napthali. Moreover, the Cabala
is of kin to the Masora, dividing the law into Scriptam,
Traditam, and Oralem. There are also the Mishna and
Gemarah, both of much more use than the Cabala,
which deliver to us innumerable toys, fables, and many
ridiculous and superstitious mysteries ; yet aU of them
serving to preserve the Holy Text, at one time or
other.

4. THE STYLE.

The style of the sacred pen-men, had they no other
characters to entitle them to their Divine Author, were
enough to show they could be dictated by no other than
the spirit of God, because there is nothing of human in

THE TRUE RELIGION. 359

it, and wholly different from aU other compositions of
men pretending to eloquence or sophistry, — things
which recommend other writings. These, often for-
getting what they mentioned before, or omitting some-
thing they forgot, are forced to recall, or add ; which
the Scriptures never do. The expressions are natural
and simple, without flourish or studied elaborate periods,
and flattering titles and invitations, to gain credit ; but
indited with that honest plainness that, if any other
liistory should imitate, it would be rejected and despised
by such as mind only to please the fancy and dehglit
the ear.' And yet are there parts of it so subUme, and
outshining the most celebrated profane authors, that no
human eloquence approaches them.

There are in Scripture depths in which the elephant
may swim, as well as the lamb may wade. Our Blessed
Saviour speaks in an easy, familiar style ; his similes
and parables are natural, and incomparably pertinent,
to the reproof of forced expressions and criticisms, for
wliich ostentatious wits value themselves. And though
not always according to the nicer rules of orators, yet
is the Sacred style no less majestical. Who amongst
them aU has reached the rapturous attitudes of the
prophet Isaiah ? the first of St. John's Gospel, the
Psalms of David, the Songs of Moses and Deborah,
Job, Canticles, and several of the Sacred Hymns,
which, however they may seem in the vulgar trans-
lation, are, in their originals, not only comparable to,
but far transcending, the Heathen poesies. And, as
' See St. Aug., De C. Dei, 1. 12.

360 THE TRUE EELIGION.

to the loftiness of style, breathing of so divine and
majestical, that Longinus, the sophist, himself is in ad-
miration at that imperious word, God said, Let there he
light, and there was light ! '

The matter is not made tedious by formal argument,
yet it is convincing and irresistible. Nor do the repe-
titions (as in other •writings) leave a nausea, but stUl
the same relish and veneration. What can move the
affections more than the histories of Joseph, the story
of Ruth, the sacrifice of Jephtha's daughter, the friend-
ship between Jonathan and David ? What more asto-
nishing than the narration of the Levite's concubine
being abused? What more passionate, and fuUer set
with rhetorical transitions, than the Lamentations of
Jeremiah? Wliat more moving and tender than the
conduct of Mary Magdalene, the prayer of our departing
Jesus, and the like ?

As to variety of readings, transpositions, terms,
synonyms, punctuations, they show an unaffected rich-
ness without studied art. And such a magazine are
the Scriptures upon aU topics and subjects,' as all the
Platos, Ciceros, Senecas, historians, philosophers, and
philologists, furnish nothing more plentiful, more use-
ful, and that faU into juster and more shining periods,
upon all occasions whatever ; * adapted to convince,
redargue, persuade, and instruct; not with enticing
words of man's wisdom, but in the demonstration of
the Spirit, and in power ; ^ not in choice phrases and
' Gen., i., 3. ^ Matt., v., vi., vii.

^ II.Tim., iii., 17. * I. Cor., ii., 4.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 361

elaborated methods, and structure of words, but with
such light of conviction, depth of speculation, and, in
the midst of all this plainness, such energy of operation,
such sublimity of matter as nothing can resist it.

There is in Holy Scriptures such access to the weak
and feeble, comfort to the sorrowful, strong meat for
men, milk for babes ; such elevation and grandeur of
mind, advancing the humanity of men to the height of
bliss ; in a word, it is what manna was to the Israel-
ites, — food delicious and accommodated to every man's
taste. It is a deep well for depth, celestial for height.
As it speaks of God, nothing is so sublime, — as of men,
nothing so humble, — it is a bridle to restrain, a spur to
incite, a sword to penetrate, salt to season, a lantern
to our feet, and a light to our paths. Critique and
grammar have too often prejudiced the meaning of the
true and genuine text. Men dare not cavil the laws
and ordinances of princes, if they are so clear as to be
understood, whilst the laws of God are a thousand times
more perspicuous. And, were it otherwise, men could
not be religious, till they understood the learned tongues.
But, since God has called all men to the knowledge of
the truth, and, therefore, not many wise, not many
learned, but the industriously humble, as well as the
extraordinarily knowing. '

Had we heard the Apostles themselves preaching
the Mysteries of Christ, should we have been in doubt

' Verba coelcstis oraculi non sunt restringenda ad regulas Donati ;
et melius est ut nos reprehendant grammatici, quam ut non intelli-
gant populi. — S. Augustine.

362 THE TRUE RELIGION.

of their meaning, because haply there might occur some
difficulty, or equivocal term, some syllable misplaced?
Certainly, the words which they spake are the same
they left us in writing, and sufficient to make us Chris-
tians, and order our conversation ; and to promote the
design of God, which was not to charm the world by
the magic of words, but by the weight and honesty of
the matter ; and, accordingly, it succeeded beyond aU
the oratory and rhetoric of the Gentile schools, and
cunning of sophists.

We do not all this while understand, by the style of
Scripture, as if aU the words and expressions were
immediately dictated by an audible voice ; I say all,
without exception; for that the Decalogue, or Ten
Commandments, was first written by the finger of God,
and the Tables so inscribed delivered to Moses in the
Mount, and afterwards, being broken, were by the same
God renewed,' we make no question. And so were
several laws and ordinances, by immediate dictate, as
well in the New as Old Testament ; namely, the
notice of our Blessed Saviour's Incarnation, first to the
Blessed Virgin, then to the Shepherds, to the Baptist,
to the Apostles, to St. Paul, at his conversion, and at
other times. But this was not always, and upon aU
occasions, as to the phraseology and style ; but they all
spake and writ as they were moved and inspired in-
wardly by the Holy Ghost, sometimes by visions, other-
whiles by dreams, Urim and Thummim ; whether illus-
trating the component letters engraven on the pectoral,
^ Exod., xz. ; xxxi., 18. Deut., ix., 10,- x., 4.

THE TEUE RELIGION. 363

SO as to make up the response,' or by a teraphim, in-
serted in the ephod offering a voice, is by the learned
disputed.

Sufficient it is, that the matter was dictated, leaving
the wording of it to the holy men, who received the
impulse, not as a habit residing at all times in them, but
upon especial occasions, as God saw fitting, and by im-
mediate irradiation, as sometimes happened.

There were divers things deUvered to the Prophets
and Apostles, in images and symbols, in their several
visions. And many things and actions they speak of
as having done, which they did no otherwise than in
prophetic vision and sccnical imagery ; such as Jeremiah's
carrying the cup and the yokes to the several near and
distant nations,'' Ezekiel's besieging Jerusalem, lying
above a year on his left side, preparing his food with
dung, eating the bitter roll,^ Hosea marrying a common
harlot, rending of his hair, and the like.'' These
doubtless were not real transactions, but things im-
pressed, and represented in their fancies only, and
dramatically acted there, not before the people ; for
this would not only have been ridiculous to them, but
unlawful.

These and the like were things of type only, though
described by the Prophets as really acted ; and were so
set down in writing, and published as they themselves
conceived them, so as men who dream might do.
Though I do not say the Prophecies were only dreams,

' See chapter ix. * Jer., xxv., 15 ; xxvii.

^ Ezek., iv. ; iii., 2. * Hos., ill., 1.

364 THE TRUE KELIGION.

but living visions — as the burning bush of Moses, the
vision of Ezekiel, and the like, which made deeper im-
pressions on the fancy. Such was the drama showed to
St. John, through all the Book of Revelations. For
we do not here enlarge on the ministry of angels to this
purpose, frequent in the Scripture ; nor more imme-
diate inspiration, by which, haply, David and other holy
persons, perceiving the usual temper of their minds
extraordinarily transported, poured out those holy rap-
tures, hymns, and sentences, as moved by the Holy
Spirit ; but with this difference from the Pagan oracles,
that it was in a pacate way, not in a furious transport,
and raving, such as possessed their priestesses, &c.:
though sometimes, even in God's Prophets, with more
extending zeal and fervour. For, as to the immediate
voice of God,' it was more especially imparted to Moses,
that great Prophet, so extraordinarily familiar with
God,^ because he was to be the basis and original of all
the future prophecies ; and doubtless he set down the
very words he heard in the Mount.

As to the rest, they made use of their own style and
abilities, as appears by their various writings and phra-
seology. Isaiah, a courtier, writes in a more sublime
and lofty style than Amos, who was only a herdsman
of Tekoa ; and most evidently in the Books of the New
Testament, particularly the Evangelist St. Luke, and
the Epistles of St. Paul, — though both of them very
learned men, yet the one writing purer Greek, the other

' This the Rabbins called Gradus Mosaicus.
^ Numb., xii., 7, 8.

THE TRUE KELIGION. 365

falling often Into Hebraisms, — and so of the rest, less
versed in the language. For it is not thought that the
Apostles had at all times the gift of tongues ; but at
such periods, and on such occasions only, when it was
needful for the conversion of strange and foreign nations
and people ; so that, according to their acquired parts
and faculties, their style appeared; yet still in that
wonderful manner, for its peculiar plainness, innocency,
and, withal, a secret energy, as no writings could ever
imitate to those divine effects.

The Holy Spirit dictated the matter, leaving the
narrative to the Prophet : but at no time did He ever
make use of idiots or fools to reveal His will to ; but
those whose intellectuals were entire, though some-
times rapt with a holy enthusiasm. Besides, we find
both our Blessed Lord and Apostles not always citing
the Scriptures verbatim, but varying and paraphrasing.
This they would not have done, had the very words
(as was the Pentateuch) been divinely dictated.

Lastly, when we find anything seemingly incon-
sistent, we are not to examine it by logical and arti-
ficial methods, and systems of human science ; for all
these are tilings below Divine Inspiration. And, there-
fore, Cicero doubts of the sybilline acfostics, arguing
elaborate and affected diligence in the composition. So
true is it that, lumen propheticum est lumen abruptum ;
and that other maxim of the Rabbins, non est prius et
posterius in lege ; many things of different kinds being
contracted in the same vision, as St. Jerome has observed
in the Eleventh of Daniel : for here we find a passing

366 THE TRUE EELIGION.

over of divers Inter-relgning princes between Cyrus and
Alexander, and the like in Jeremiah, &c. Besides, it
is notorious that the scribes of the Temple writ most of
the prophetic sayings as the authors happened to pro-
phesy daily ; and thence comes it to pass, that chap-
ters, sayings, &c., both in the Prophets, Proverbs, and
Psalms, now treating of Christ, then of the captivity,
now of one subject, then of another, seem so incon-
sistent, as not digested artificially, but as the Spirit

5. THEIE CONSENT AND HARMONY.

The consent and harmony of the Holy Scriptures, —
how the parts cohere ; so as the most seeming contra-
dictions and passages are found to agree in sweet and
mutual consent and union (the New Testament with
the Old), indicates a wonderful Providence, in answering
all the prophecies and expectations of it.

First, as to the consent of Versions, we are to note
that, when the gift of tongues (necessary for the first
planting of the church) ceased, then began they to
translate the Scriptures into vulgar languages. So that
Theodoret ' affirms that in his time the holy books
appeared in all languages, and so St. Jerome, who put
it into his country's language, the Dalmatic; as St.
Chrysostom, the Armenian ; St. Augustine (some of it)
into the Punic ; Cyril or Methodius into the Sclavonic ;
into the Gothic Ulphilus ; Bede into the Saxon ;
Michael Adamus into the German, which he writ in
' Lib. 5, de Concord. Graec.et Heb.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 367

Hebrew cliaracters, being a Jew ; Jacobus de Veragine
translated it into tbe Italian ; Hieronymas Leopoldus
into the Polonian ; Charles the Fifth, King of France,
into the French ; Cassiodorus into Spanish ; Wickliff'e
first into English. And by the piety of my noble friend
Mr. Boyle, procured to be translated not only into Irish,
but into the Indian also ; and, through a late collection,
through all this our nation, it has been endeavoured,
and I think accomplished, in the Lithuanian tongue,
Krinokrainsky being their commissioner to collect the
charities in order to it.

And the tongues which now are called learned Avere
indeed vernacular, when first the Scriptures were written
in them ; namely, both the Greek and Hebrew, as were
also the offices of divine service. But that which intro-
duces their enumeration here is their wonderful har-
mony and consent in all things that are necessary to
faith and salvation ; aU the various lections and diffi-
culties being in minutioribus only. And this it was
morally impossible to avoid in so divers versions and
languages ; for so has the providence of God invigilated,
that the Faith has suffered nothing ; no, not from the
malicious Jews. Thus much concerning the consent of
translations, of which we shall speak more at the last
Section of this Chapter.

We observe a most wonderful consent, also, in the
types and figures of both Testaments, as that the first
Adam was a figure of Christ ; the second Adam, though
to a contrary effect, of life by his death ; assuming our
flesh, to be Lord of all things in it, as the first Adam

368 THE TRUE EELXGION.

had dominion over all creatures.' So Noah and the
Deluge figure the church by baptism." And, indeed,
whatever else befel the patriarchs, prophets, and mar-
tyrs in the Old Testament were types of what Chris-
tians should suffer under the Gospel, as at large in the
eleventh of Hebrews.' In like sort, their pilgrimages,
the deliverance of the Israelites out of Egypt, diffi-
culties in the wilderness, are figures of the afflictions
and persecutions which the saints were to go through
before they could come to heaven.*

In a word, it is considerable that whereas so many
other writers of the same sect or profession, be it of
human or divine matters, historians, lawyers, and philo-
sophers, frequently differ even among themselves, these
holy writers deliver the very same doctrine and history,
without any discrepancy ; and, whenever they but seem
to do otherwise, the differences are not only small, but
easily reconciled by other parts.

6. THE MATTER AND SUBJECT.

The matter and subject, or rather history of the
Holy Scriptures, does certainly exceed all the writino-s
and histories in the world. For as it begins, so as
never history did, from the Creation, so it proceeds to
show what shall be the end. First, as to the historical
part ; it tells us how the Almighty fiat created and

' Romans, v., 12-14. I. Cor., xv., 22, 45, &c.

2 I. Peter, iii., 21.

^ See Mr. Thorndike's Epilogue, book i., c. 5.

' I. Cor., X., 1, 11. Heb., iii., 19; iv., 11.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 369

educed, out of no pre-existent matter, a confused chaos ;
and out of that, this aspectable universe, with all its
furniture. How man, being endued with an immortal
soul, was placed in a garden, or country, of all natural
delights and satisfactions ; under an easy and reasonable
prohibition, for probation of his gratitude and obe-
dience to his Creator and Benefactor, lapsed from that
blessed state, by his disobedience, and by hearkening to
the temptations of an Accursed Spirit. And how, by
the infinite pity of a gracious God, he had re-admission
to favour and grace, by virtue of a second covenant ;
which, performed in this life (after a temporary disso-
lution and refinement), he should be reinstated in a
happier condition than that which he lost, through the
mediation of a Saviour; prescribing to him and his
posterity, tainted and weakened by his fall, a new law
of ordinance, which, being accepted, should make him
happy.

Thus have we, in the old covenant, an account of the
world before the Flood ; how, for the sins of the world,
a flood swept away the whole race of mankind, except
one family, by whom the earth was re-peopled. Then
follow the lives of the postdiluvian Patriarchs, and
among them the effect of Abraham's faith, for which
was revealed to him the promised Messiah. How his
posterity was, in the mean time, to be grievously op*
pressed ; with what signs and wonders to be delivered ;
how and by what ordinances to be governed under
leaders, judges, and kings. How warned by Prophets ;
whom, disobeying, they were carried captives into
Babylon, did seventy years' penance, and thence again

VOL. I. B B

370 THE TETJE EELIGIOJT.

were delivered. And in what condition they con-
tinued till the fullness of the time, when Christ, the
Lord and true Messiah, conceived and born of a pure
Virgin, did, without sin, suffer for our sins in His body
on the Cross ; thereby paying our debt, and making
our peace with His justly-incensed Father. We have
there, also, full directions and instructions for the regu-
lation of our lives, nay, of our very thoughts, as well
as words and actions, qualifying us for eternal life and
glory.

In these holy books, we also learn how this blessed
and sacred person, God and Man, qualified to effect
this stupendous work of our redemption, was ungrate-
fully rejected, notwithstanding the holiness of His life,
the purity of His doctrine, and the wonderful miracles
He performed ; and what befell those who crucified
Him with that hellish spite. Not that God the Father
was pleased with the sin of those who executed it, but
with Him who, for our sakes, offered His interposition
with that love and tender compassion ; and for the re-
pairing of His Father's glory by bringing many, through
imputed righteousness, to eternal life, triumphing over
death and hell.

This leads us, to the calling of the Gentiles out of
their superstitious darkness, to embrace the Gospel;
and teaches the Jews a more perfect and evangelical
law, till now veiled under busy types and ceremonies,
figures of the things to come. And this was through
the preaching, first of our Saviour, then of His apostles,
disciples, and evangelists, by the miraculous descent of
the Holy Ghost ; enabling them, by the gift of tongues

THE TEUE RELIGION. 371

and miracles, to plant and propogate those mysteries
among all nations ; and which was to continue (namely,
the doctrine which they taught) till the consummation
and end of the world. These particulars, together with
many prophecies and other events, through all these
sacred books, show what they contain, and how neces-
sary it is we should be acquainted with them, and
assured of their truth. They show, as in a map, the
condition of the Church, under all its dispensations;
that there is a God, His attributes, such a thing as
religion, and what this religion is, how different from
all other worships.

In a word, the Scriptures contain the whole Will of
God, as far as He is pleased to reveal Himself, which is a;?
far as is necessary for our salvation. This is the his-
tory of the subject matter, teaching us the mystery of
godliness — mysteries, indeed, and which the very angels
desired to pry into, namely, the Incarnation of the Son,
the Resurrection, the Ascension, the Trinity of Per-
sons, the Hypostatical Union. How we are called and
how sanctified, justified, and saved. Here we are
directed in the way to the Sovereign Good, which those
great and learned philosophers have striven to find, but
in a way wholly repugnant to the means of ever find-
ing it, without this direction. For where meet we with
such holy and perfect precepts, just Hves, and examples
among the wise men, and disputers of the world ? Such
a faith as that of Abraham, faith against hope, in which
all our happiness lies. Such miracles as our Blessed
Saviour performed ; — such mysteries as are contained
in the Incarnation of Christ. In sum : — where, amonjr

BB 2

S ( 2 THE TRUE RELIGION.

all the institutions and religions of the heathen, so holy i
doctrine, consummate of all perfection, as the Chris-
tian, worthy of a great and intellectual nature, an im-
mortal soul? That His followers should, in contem-
plation of things invisible, lose their fortunes and lives
here, to live and be happy hereafter ! — to overcome bj
Offering, and believe against appearance I — that abne-
gation, self-denial, repugning natural inclinations, humi-
lity, taking up the cross, suffering infamy and perse-
cution with joy, loss of goods without murmuring, doing
good for evU, forgiving injuries, forgiving and even
dying for enemies, and for the faith, through exquisite
and cruel torments, for an invisible good. Search all
the laws, religions, morals, precepts, or examples of our
greatest pretenders, and we shall find nothing, or very
little, of all this, even among the most refined and
sublime of their wise and famous men. They knew
not such a thing as self-denial, purity of thought, or
that speculative vices are abominable. Policy or vain-
glory runs through all their writings. Here, on the
other hand, the glory is totally attributed to God ; and
what was planted in persecution, and watered with their
blood, grew up and prospered against all the malice of
men and devils.

7. THE EFFECTS AND DESIGN.

In order to the end, what is more subhme and noble
than the worship and adoration of the Glorious Creator ?
He rewards the creature with aU the felicity a rational
soul is capable of, namely, with the vision and fruition
of that perfect Being, who at once consummates our

THE TRUE EELIGIOlf. S / S

happiness to the utmost capacity of the soul. This is
the design, and this the effect of the Holy Scriptures,
their doctrine and precepts, ennobling and improving
the superior man ; enabling him to repel the temptations
of seducing spirits. Our Blessed Lord did but say, It
is written, and all the powers of Hell were not able to
resist it.

Their design is, to teach us the duties required to
render our worship of the Deity acceptable ; that it be
humble, substantial, significant, spiritual, decent with-
out superstition, as recommending sanctity and inward
purity, even to thought and imagination. It requires a
righteous and worthy conversation ; that the devout be
adorned with all the divine and moral virtues (as far as
is attainable and consistent with the unavoidable frail-
ties of human nature), namely, justice, mercy, integrity,
beneficence, gratitude, patience, love, temperance, forti-
tude, prudence, peace, and complacency: thus refining
nature to a god-like temper, and preparing it for the
life above, when it shall receive its full consummation.
For the design and intention of the Holy Spirit of God
'y>j whose effusion at Pentecost we continue Christians
to this day) was not to gratify men's curiosity or secular
iesigns, and therefore not dressed up in a rhetorical
style, in exact and logical method, like other human
sciences and philosophical notions ; but to be the rule of
3ur faith and practice, and to communicate to us what
:s necessary for our salvation, by sanctificatlon and grace.
Other matters are only touched in general, and as
;hey appear to common sense. And, therefore, Moses
shows us the final causes of things, as proposed by God

374 THE TRUE EELIGION.

to man, to incite and stir up Ms gratitude ; not pre-
tending to teach academical learning, or natural pMo-
sopliy by physical causes, farther than may lead us to
the admiration of the God of Nature.

Thus is the Scripture (as St. Chrysostom calls it)
Ostium ad Christum, — the way, the truth, and the life.
And we find more admirable and saveable matter in one
only Sermon of Jesus upon the Mount, than in aU the
morals of the philosophers; so that Porphyry himself
confesses that no sect of those famous men has been
able to show how the great God was to be served and
propitiated. In a word, the Scriptures are written for
our learning, containing the whole counsel of God,' the
whole duty of man ; and, therefore, must nothing now
be added to, nothing detracted from, them. Hence
that of TertuUian, — A doro plenititudinem Scripturw. It
is a magazine of all necessary truths, come we but with
minds prepared. I say, they contain all necessary cre-
denda and facienda, — all pertaining to faith or manners,
either by express word and precept, or necessary con-
sequences ; and tending to good order, edification, and
discipline. There is sufficient for aU our wants, if we
come with hearts to believe ; but not enough to solve
all our doubts, if we will dispute. It is the canon or
rule by which to try just inquiries and controversies,
not our impertinent and endless cavils.

Such powerful efifects have the Scriptures, that (as

we noted) they took root, not only in aU places, bul

pierced the very hearts and souls of believers; anc

thousands lost their lives to save their Bibles, when tht

^ Acts, XX., 27.

THE TRUE RELIGION. .37i

traitors delivered them to be burnt. For what book,
or history, in the world besides, would men be mar-
tyred, after all their idolizing of Homer, Virgil, Cicero,
and the rest, that the learned doat on ? That which no
institution, or philosophic precept, among all their volu-
minous works, could effect in so many ages, was, by the
doctrine and eflficacy of Holy Scriptures, accomplished
like a charm, in a moment, as it were ; immediately
operating, stilling the passions, mortifying our corrup-
tions, debasing our pride, allaying envy and avarice,
captivating our very thoughts and imaginations, and
teaching us to live soberly, righteously, and godly,
subduing our worldly lusts and pleasures. Thus was
St. Augustine converted, by reading (as he tells us) but
one period, but one single verse of Scripture : ' so soon
it finds its way to the most intimate recesses of the
heart, beating down its strongest hold, and bringing
into subjection every imagination to the empire of
Christ.

St. Augustine was scandalized at the simplicity of the
style of the Scriptures, before his eyes were opened,
and then how did he change his mind ! How deplore
his bUndness 1 How admire the Sacred Books ! He
calls the Scriptures profunditas, an inexhaustible store-
house ; and therefore we are to search them, says ano-
ther Father, by digging, as in a mine, for hidden
treasure.^

Holy Scriptures being, then, thus designed, namely,

that by the knowledge and practice of the doctrine and

' [See Romans, xiii., 13, 14. S. Aug. Confess., lib. viii., c. 29.]
^ S. Chrysostom. Horn. 40.

376 THE TRUK RELIGION.

rules contained in them, we may attain suet happiness ;
every soul is obliged to search, read, and meditate
them with all diligence, earnestly contending for the
faith once delivered to the Saints. This was so strictly
required, and enjoined so universally in the Old Testa-
ment, and so recommended to us in the New, that there
can lie no reasonable prohibition to the contrary ; what-
ever a certain Church of great name, out of secular
respects, may pretend, and to keep men still in igno-
rance, lest they should discover, among other errors of
it, this monstrous sacrilege ; so as well might that [re-
mark] of the learned Grotius be here applied, Merito sus~
pecta merx est, quae Jidc lege obtruditur, nee inspici pessiO
But so tyrannically have they deterred men from this
necessary duty, that we read of a poor Friar among
them who thought himself damned for reading six
lines only of St. John's Gospel, in the vulgar trans-
lation.

So benign has God been in enjoining us laws so
reasonable, as, not contradicting the common notions of
human nature (such as the heathens themselves cele-
brated), were such as are highly perfective of our well-
being in this life, as well as that to come. For such are
all the precepts of the Gospel rationally considered;
nor, in saying this, do we level it only with natural reli-
gion, since, besides the things to be done (in which the
false rehgion consisted), there are many things to be
believed, as only revealed to Christians, besides the
supernatural assistance which they wanted ; above all,

' " Those wares which are thrust upon us, without the privilege
of inspection, are justly held in suspicion."

THE TRUE RELIGION. S77

the gift of the Lord Jesus, for example, and to expiate
sin, and save our souls, — His working in us an internal
principle of sanctity, if we reject it not.

Lastly, as to all other effects, it has communicated
the most stupendous gifts, — converted the whole world,
learned and pagan, — and subdued it without force of
arms, money, or human policy, which shows it to be
from none but Him, who is the Omnipotent.

Moreover, we have, besides all these, the confirmation
of undeniable testimony.

8. TESTIMONY.

The things and actions recorded in Scripture were
not done in a corner, but were visible and audible.
That which we have heard, seen with our eyes, which
we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of
the word of life, we declare unto you.' The Scripture
imposes not any miracles on the faith of those, among
whom they were done, against common sense and
reason (as those who would fetch transubstantiation out
of it), though many of them above om* finding out, as
being spiritual, and not corporeal. But whatever was
the object of sense (as all bodily substances are), visible,
and palpable, were done before all the people ; and
that either by our Saviour Himself, or His Prophets
or Apostles, persons weU known, and in the face of the
sun. They acted and preached publicly, in a well known
part of the world, fuU of the most learned and inqui-
sitive men, teaching also a doctrine threatening eternal
damnation against aU impostors, deceitful and lying
' I. John, i., 1.

378 THE TRUE RELIGION.

miracles.' They always appealed to the senses, and to
the Searcher of Hearts. Besides, the things reported
to be done were the most Hahle to examination and de-
tection, had they been false. Those of the Old Testa-
ment were done by Mosea and several of the Prophets,
in the face of the whole nation, and before kings and
princes; nor has ever any historian since denied the
matters of fact. And for the New Testament ; as to
John the Baptist's birth, his father and mother were of
the most eminent persons among the Jews. Then, for
liis preaching, about the fifteenth year of Tiberius, —
the Governors of Judea are named and punctually set
down,2 Annas and Caiaphas being High-priests ; so the
occasion of his beheading for Herodias' sake.^ So the
Nativity of Christ, — what can be more particular than
what St. Luke has recorded?* When all the known
world or Roman empire was in profound peace (as it
was in the reign of Augustus), at the time of the uni-
versal census, and when Cyrenius was governor of
Syria; he was born in a common inn of Bethlehem,
the Blessed Virgin-Mother falling in travail, as she was
on a journey ; He was laid in a manger for want of
another room. All these are particulars which were
most easy to have been examined; and so his being
baptized about the thirtieth year of his age. His preach-
ing ; the miracle at the marriage-feast in Cana of
Galilee; His healing the Centurion's servant, a public
officer in the army ; ejecting the legion of evU spirits,
and drowning so great a herd of swine ; His raising

' Acts, iv., 14, 16 ; x., 39. ' Luke, iii., 1.

= Matt., xiv. « Luke, ii., 17.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 379

Jairus's daughter, and resuscitation of Lazarus before
so many envious, as 'well as curious spectators. And,
above all, that of His own trial, death, and suffering at
Jerusalem, and in so notorious a time as the Passover,
when the whole nation of the Jews was in the city ;
before so great a concourse of strangers, which used to
come to that metropolis from all countries. To this add
the rending of the veil, or partition-wall, of the Sanc-
tuary, the splitting of the rocks, the graves of the dead
opening, and the eye of Heaven, as it were, put out at
noon-day, by a miraculous eclipse. Then, as to His
Resurrection, there is the testimony not only of the
pious women and disciples, but of the very guards of
His sepulchre ; His being seen by above five hundred
at once, besides Hjs appearing to St. Paul. All these
particulars were so publicly notorious, and have been
so exactly recorded, as never any history whatsoever, in
any age, can produce like testimony ; for the matter of
fact is abundant enough to brave and put to silence all
contradiction.

The like may be affirmed of the rest of the Acts of
the Apostles : as how Herod, Pilate, pro-consuls and
presidents, scribes and doctors, Pharisees and High-
priests, Sanhedrim, all of them most malicious and
bitter enemies to these proceedings, never once denying
the facts ; and which were set down in writing, whilst
men's memories (who were spectators) were recent:
for the Gospel of St. Matthew was written within
seven years after; Mark, within eleven; St. Luke's,
about twenty-nine years after Christ's Ascension ; the
Epistles of St. Paul and St. Peter, within thirty ; and

S80 THE TRUE RELIGION.

all the rest ■within nearly the compass of sixty years ;
never yet convicted of forgery. And the entire volume
of Scriptures has been generally received by all Chris-
tians, before any General Council, or convocation of
Clergy, or Imperial edict, was so much as heard of.
So great is truth, and it will prevail.

Thus is the credit of Holy Scriptures proved, by no
less than ocular demonstration from matter of undeniable-
fact, and also its propagation, — marks so evident of its
veracity, as, next to the contrivance of man's Redemp-
tion, nothing is more wonderful, nothing more stu-
pendous.

jS"ow, besides all these, as for self-evidence (if these
be not sufficient), on pretence of such a light in Holy
Scriptures, as should immediately operate on the soulj
as natural objects act upon our senses (and at this dis-
tance of time since these things were performed), it is
unreasonable to require it. And yet, though our intel-
lectuals cannot discern the verity of things by imme-
diate intuition, yet, by discourse, and evicting means,
it may ; namely, that power, by which men are
enabled to draw perspicuous inferences from clear and
plain principles. There are such evident ones in the
Scriptures, as clearly infer that they ought to be
believed and obeyed, though God has not been pleased
to declare His mind concerning them in so many unde-
niable instances, as we see He has done, abundantly.
But of this we shall say something in the summing-
up of this chapter, speakiag of the Interpretation of
Scripture.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 381

9. THEIK ANTIQUITY, AND THE SUFFRAGE OF
HISTORIANS.

And, first, the Books of the Old Testament are, un-
doubtedly, of the moat venerable and deep antiquity of
any writings that we know or ever heard of; for,
whether letters were invented before the Flood, we have
no authentic records : ' whereas, the books of Moses
we find older than Orpheus, Linus, Musaeus, or any,
not only of the Pagan poets (who are esteemed the
most ancient writers among them), but even of their
very Gods — Jove, Janus, Bacchui-, &c. This, without
any great labour, may be proved to have been derived
from the Mosaic writings ; so that if, quod antiquum est,
verum est, the Scriptures must needs be true, as well as
ancient. Nay, so ancient, that even the very last
writers of the Hebrew canon — Esdras, Haggai, Zacha-
riali, and Malachi, lived and wrote (most of them) before
the most ancient heathen authors.'*

Besides, the Scriptures' indisputable precedency to
all other writings, we find not questioned by any
author whatsoever; whereas, we meet with so many
eminent passages and persons mentioned by profane
writers, as Japhet, Abraham, Moses, &c. ; the Creation
and Genesis of the world, the universal Cataclysm,
the concurrent opinion of its future conflagration, the

' Joseph. Antiq.

2 This testimony Appian gives, though an enemy of the Jews,
speaking of Moses. So Justin, Juvenal, Pliny, Tacitus, Longinus,
Porphyry, and Julian himself. Nor is it improbable but that,
amongst other precious gifts, with which the Queen of Sheba was
presented by King Solomon, those holy books, the fountain of all
wisdom, were presented to her.

S82 THE TRUE EELIGION.

Tower of Babel, the dispersion, and the overthrow of
Sennacherib.

Nay, and that they were written by Divine Revela-
tion, too, and ever so esteemed, we have not only the
testimony of all the grave and learned among the
Christians of all ages, long before the Council of Lao-
dicea, which first collected the canon ; but the suffrage
of both Jews and Gentiles, who lived about that time.
Nor had any thing to the contrary been called in ques-
tion, till the pride and itch of later critics have erected
their impious creeds against some testimonies never
before suspected, nor by them overthrown with so much
as any show of sound reason. But, in spite of the
malice and subtlety of the old and envious Serpent,
those sacred records have, by a most signal Providence
of the Almighty Author, triumphed over both men
and devils, in the hands of those who lived so much
nearer the times of their writing than Vaninus, Spinosa,
Hobbs, and other audacious monsters, transported with
the pride of showing their learning and ridiculous singu-
larity, though at the price of the most evident and saving
truths. But we leave these to their deserved doom.

As to that of the Evangelical History, the New
Testament, Josephus (no Christian) goes parallel with
it, mentioning all along the same persons and things, as
of John the Baptist, Herod, Pilate, Gamaliel, Fehx,
and Festus ; the succession of the high-priests, of St.
James; yea, and gives a character of Christ himself, of
which, 1' doubt not, Josephus must have heard ; and
could not reasonably omit, whatever doubt some have
made of that Illustrious passage.

To proceed, then, with tlie Heathen and human testi-

THE TRUE RELIGION. 383

monies. Not as if we at all needed them, or built our
Faith thereon (having already produced such a cloud of
witnesses), but to silence all gainsayers. "We have
from Suetonius, Tacitus, Pliny the nephew, that there
was such a person as Christ, the Author of Christianity ;
and the history of their sufferings, who professed it in
all ages after, to confirm it. We have, also, the testi-
mony of Phlegon, about the miraculous ecHpse, exactly
agreeing with Scripture story, both as to the year, day,
and very hour. So the time and place of our Blessed
Saviour's nativity were extant in the Archives, even
till St. Chrysostom's time, from the Census under
Augustus, and agreeable with the public records, from
Pilate's information. To this add the opinion of Tibe-
rius concerning Christ, upon the information he had,
of his miracles and person, out of Judea ; for which he
would have had him inscribed among the gods, had not
a flattering Senate opposed it out of compliment to
that emperor, for whom they would reserve that highest
honour.

This history was so authentic, that Tertullian, who
lived near that time, provokes all the world to contrar
diet it, if they could : being a thing so public and upon
record in his days. And Justin Martyr also appeals to
the known acts of Pilate about this passage, requesting
the emperor (to whom he dictates his Apology) to search
their own records for what he so confidently affirms.
The governors of all the Koraan provinces being (it
seems) obliged to keep exact diaries and registers, and
to give the emperors account of all considerable pas-
sages happening under and during their ministry ; and
these, it appears, were extant in the time of this Apo-

384 THE TRUE RELIGION.

logist. Nor has it been so much as once questioned as
to the truth. Indeed, Porphyry, revolting from Chris-
tianity to Platonism, did all he could to disparage
Scripture, but was so fully evicted by Lactantius,
Eusebius, Apollinaris, and even in later days by Socinus
himself, and that so incomparably (though in other
weighty matters sorely erring), as never was victory
against a Pagan more complete.

Moreover, as to the Old Testament, and the Creation
out of chaos, &c. : Hesiod and divers of the ancients
agree that it was requisite, that, for the perfecting of arts
and useful inventions, men's lives should have been pro-
tracted at the beginning. The story of the Flood is very
frequent under the disguises of Deucahon, Ogyges, &c.
Nay, they have a tradition of it in the New World
among the savages, which shows it was not a partial but
total inundation. Alexander Polyhistor speaks expressly
of the ark, from which, among all sorts of animals, a dove
was sent forth, to examine the temper of the earth.

Who more commonly mentioned by writers than
Japhet ? The same author (as we noted) speaks of the
Babylonish enormous building and division of tongues.
Strabo mentions Sodom. The column of salt remained
in Josephus's time, and haply does to this day. Eupo-
lemus mentions Abraham as inventor of astronomy, and
his migration into Phoenicia ; as also his victory over
the five kings, for the rescue of his nephew, with other
particulars. And Polyhistor is so express, that there is
hardly a passage in all Genesis unrecited. Many of
these agree with Nicholas Damascene, Theodotus,
Aristajus, especially that of holy Job ; which (if any)
haply might have been written even before Moses.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 385

lanetho and Justin record the descent of the Israelites
ato Egypt as shepherds, the dividing of the sea, and
he overthrow of Pharaoh ; their abode in the desert,
,nd their being nourished with a certain snow. The
ame is almost the entire story of Moses, though with
ome intermixtures of their own, especially in the book
if Artabamts touching the Jews ; where, also, is men-
ion of the Egyptian plagues.' The same is mentioned
ly Demetrius and Eupolemus. And, though they pre-
end that Moses did all those wonders by his skill in
nagic, yet they record them, and have a tradition of
lis rod.'^ And as Origen hints, did thence use them in
lieir conjurations, with the name of the God of Israel.
Tacitus speaks of the Passover ; Justin of the wars of
Toshua, and the inscription of his beating out the old
Danaanites, which some affirm was found not long since
ibout old Tangier ; as also of the building of the
Temple, in which the fore-mentioned heathen have par-
ticularized many things, not forgetting the basso-relievo
af the candlestick, and other vessels, as described in
Leviticus, and which are still extant on the arch trium-
phal of Titus, at Eome ; which I myself have seen, and
3aused an accurate draught to be then made upon the
place.

In sum, we have in these authors the mention of the
captivity, the history of Sennacherib, recited by Hero-
iotus, the most ancient of all the heathen historians.
In a word, so many are the testimonies of the truth of
Scripture relations, as there do not appear the like In
favour of any other history whatsoever. For, were the

' The Phoenician annals mention David and Solomon, and their
leagues with Tyre. " Confer. Cels., 1. 4.

VOL. I. C ,

!S6 THE TRUE RELIGION.

radition of the Scriptures' antiquity and veracity not
nough, that very reason, which leads us to the belief
if any moral thing, were abundantly sufficient. Since,
f we will only credit immediate demonstration, how
hould any know they were born from such parents,
irhose children they are reputed? Surely, such doubts
rould be very impertinent. We have for these sacred
racles as much assurance as of the work of any author,
f which we make no question ; and he who should
ot negociate into the Indies before he had seen them,
lust resolve never to see them. And what common
iterest can the world have so to deceive, and be de-
eived ? Much less could the Mosaic law, least of all the
irospel, have found credit (the one imposing such an end-
;ss morosity of precepts to observe, and the other the
"ross of Christ), had it not been originally manifest
iiat such things were done to evidence that and this.
Sy the same means that aU records of learning are
onveyed to us, are the Scriptures evidenced to be
latter of liistorical faith ; but, inasmuch as the matter
f them had never been received but by the work of
rod, in tha,t respect they become matter of superna-
aral faith, in regard of the reason, moving in the nature
f an object to believe, as well in respect of God's
race, moving in the nature of an effective cause, unless
^e saw ourselves what was written; which were im-
ossible to every individual man, that either has been
r is to be born. What can be more a demonstration ?
Lud, therefore, we meet no adversaries, even the most
iptious and profane, who deny the authors transmitted
) us. Besides, it is not any prejudice to our faith, as
)me fondly imagine, that one should, for all this, be-

THE TEUE RELIGION. 387

lieve the Scriptures for reason, which tells us God
cannot lie or deceive ; for, if they tell us we mud
believe them, because they are the Word of God, they
say more than that we must believe them for the
strongest reason in the world. And those who pretend
the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of
God,' are abused by the English translation, as if
natural there imported only the rational, which, in
truth, signifies Animalis homo, a carnal, sensual person,
the most averse from rational that can possibly be ; and
such a man, indeed, receives not the things of the Spirit
of God. Let men be first convinced by any means —
call it reason or moral persuasion, immediate light, or
whatever, that there is a God, and Holy Scriptures
His Word, and they cannot but believe Him absolutely
perfect, and so no longer dispute His will.

10. TEADITION.

Tradition is either divine or human ; the first either
dogmatical, touching faith and manners ; or, secondly,
historical, relating to the actions and lives of the patri-
archs, prophets, Christ and His Apostles, and others
empowered by them ; thirdly, ritual, respecting cere-
monies and forms of worship.

As touching dogmatical traditions. Till Moses's time,
what was received, the Church had from God imme-
diately; nor during the longevity of the patriarchs
needed there any writing of things so fresh in memory,
and which passed through so few hands. For Enoch,
the third from Adam, might have delivered it to Noah,
and Noah to Abraham ; or if that be thought scanty,
' I. Cor., ii., 14.

C C 2

S88 THE TRUE EELIGION.

Arphaxad, who lived before the death of Noah, above
400 years, died not till Abraham was eighty-six years
of age. And then Moses, being born within 250 years
o{ Abraham, and his grandchildren, especially Levi,
the son of Jacob (who died in Egypt, a.m. 2385) and
grandfather to Moses and Aaron, but 14<8 years distant,
night very reasonably be thought to have received the
vorship and religion of the patriarchs from his father,
vithout any need of writing or record. But when
nen's lives began to be exceedingly abbreviated, it
)leased God that what they had then by tradition
inly, (as the seven precepts delivered to the sons of
^oah, &c.) should be consigned to writing ; especially
s'hen God also thought fit to add so many other laws
,nd ordinances, prophecies, and the like, as He did from
iloses to the coming of the Messiah; who, abrogating
he ceremonial dispensation, introduced that of the
xospel, which was to continue to the end of the world,
nd be the norma and rule, by which the Church was
3 be governed and instructed to everlasting salvation,
fot that, for aU this, she does refuse the testimony of
radition, for the asserting the truth of the Scriptures
eing the same, which had been received from the pen-
len, under whose names they bear the titles ; or by any
ther holy men collecting those materials, and inscrib-
ig the first authors' names, as is also usual in other
ritings. But she gratefully accepts it as God's great
id signal Providence, to the exclusion of spurious
ritings, which the emissaries of Satan would have
Dtruded on the world, and made to pass for genuine
id divine; receiving for doctrines divine the traditions
■ men, which our Blessed Lord bids us beware of.

THE TRUE RELIGION. S89

In the mean time, when we speak of the tradition of
the Church, it is not understood as if either that or the
decrees of Councils, or expositions of Fathers, made
them to be Scriptures, or had any faculty so to do, (as
a late conventicle at Trent arrogates to the Pope) but
we believe the Scriptures, from all the topics we have
mentioned in this Chapter, and especially from their
energy and effects upon the lives of men, by which
they show themselves to be miTOTria-Toi, and to be em-
braced propter se, by those who come prepared to receive
them : of which anon.

Scriptures being then received as Divine, cannot
wholly depend on the sentences of the Church as
judges ; since an authority sacred and solemnly de-
clared is required in a judge ; and this no judge can
so much as pretend to, but from the Scripture. For
we are to judge and know the Church by her faith and
doctrine, not her faith and doctrine by the Church;
which were to run the circle of that of Rome, pretend-
ing to prove her own authority by the Scriptures, and
the Scriptures by her authority. Wherefore it is not,
I say, the authority of the Church alone, which induces
our assent ; forasmuch as the Scriptures were the
Word of God, before they were written, true and
salutary, before they came to us, and precedent to the
Church. Because the being of a church, supposing the
profession of that religion the Scriptures teach, as sent
from God, and the credit of those Sacred Writings
necessary to the being of a church, necessarily proves
them more ancient than the Church. So as, in order
of reason, the Holy Scriptures (namely, the doctrine

390 THE TRUE RELIGION.

contained in them) must be precedent to the Church,
as Mr. Thorndike learnedly makes appear;' where
he also clears that saying of St. Augustine against the
Manichees. Ego Evangelium non crederem, nisi me Ec-
clesiw Catholicw moveret auctoritas, to be plainly not as
meant of a church, as a corporation qualified to oblige
its members, but of aU Christians, persons of common
sense, asserting the truth of Scriptures from such
evidences as we have brought, namely, the consent of
all people and nations; by that authority which
miracles began, hope nourished, charity increased, suc-
cession of time has settled ; conversion of Gentiles,
predictions of prophets, and the like. All these con-
stitute the Catholic Church and its unity, and are what
the father intended by this famous sentence ; and is as
much as to say, that if there were any word in Scrip-
ture which could be brought to prove what the Mani-
chees taught, he would suspend Ms belief of that
Gospel, that should assert it. For if the reason, for
which he once believed the Church, that the Scripture
is true, should be supposed false, there could be no rea-
son obliging us to believe it true. Indeed, in a case of
doubt or doctrine, it were more discretion to consult
the Church, and take the reason of it, from what the
universal Church teaches, than from particular Chris-
tians, who cannot be presumed to understand it so well.
And this is nothing to our present case : we are speak-
ing here of what is sufficient to induce our belief, with-
out the authority of the Church, which some so much
insist on, as the only reason of our behef, having made
' Epilogue, Prin. of the Truth, &c.

THE TRUE RELIGION. S91

it evident that her authority can be supported from no
other than the truth of Scriptures, appearing so both
to our reason and senses.

Now, the same reason which governs controversies in
any point of religion ought to determine here. For
the same Holy Ghost which effectually moves us to be-
lieve, supposes sufficient reason, moving in the nature
of some object proposed to be believed. Therefore
neither the truth of Christianity, nor Scripture itself,
is admitted on the dictate of God's spirit, but pre-
supposes the reasons convincing us that they are to be
admitted. And, of consequence, the gift of the Holy
Ghost, enabling the believer to continue in the profes-
sion and exercise of Christianity, supposes a belief of
that religion which we sincerely profess ; and by conse-
quence the reason why we believe, which wiU not fad
to infer the belief of Scripture.

To Infidels, therefore, such reasons are to be alleged
as may first convince them, without pressing the truth,
till it first appear to be true; and then whatever
moves a man to be a Christian will force him to be a
Christian.

Miracles, done by them from whom we receive the
faith, are the only motive to show their Divine Author:
and therefore we are obliged to believe and receive
what they assert ; yet not merely for the wonders, but
the sanctity and excellency of the matter, justified by
the light of nature, and harmony of both Testaments,
justifying one another by the events. Now, that such
miracles were performed, we have the concurrent testi-
mony and tradition of the universal Church, taking
here the Church for all believers. And though they

.392 THE TRUE RELIGION.

did or do not all behold them with their eyes, their
ears may well supply that sense ; and common sense
shows that those things which all the world agree in
are no less evident and certain (morally) than what we
see with our quickest sense ; especially when there can
be no common interest to deceive, or be deceived. Upon
this account it is, that men believe such places, cities,
and countries really to be, which they perhaps never
saw, but only heard of. And learned men are confi-
dent, upon the same reason, that there were such his-
torians, orators^ and poets, as go under the name of
Herodotus, Livy, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Cicero,
Homer, Virgil, &c. But as to those of Holy Scripture,
there is yet a far stronger reason to believe they came
from God alone, because the law and religion they
teach and enjoin propose and exact such difficulties
and contradictions to flesh and blood, by the morose-
ness of that of Moses, and sharpness of the Cross of
Christ, as, had it not been originally manifest, and evi-
denced bright as the meridian sun, that such things were
done as they relate, the world would never have em-
braced them. And since all cannot be eye-witnesses
of what is passed, let it suffice that we have the
suffrage of all who are gone before us, and which
common reason makes to be as authentic evidence, as
are our other senses. For, by the same means that all
records of learning are transmitted to us, are the Scrip-
tures proved to be matter of historical faith. And in-
asmuch as the subject of them had never been received
but by the extraordinary work of God, in that regard,
they become matter of supernatural faith.

The Church is no more in comparison of the Scrip-

THE TRUE EELIGIOX. '3i)3

ture, to the pretence of being the only cause of our
belief, than was the Samaritaness in comparison of
Christ, our Lord Himself. We believe not because of
thy saying; for we have heard him ourselves, and
know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the
world.' The reasons for which our Blessed Saviour
tells us Himself that we are to believe, are contained
in the Scriptures. Lastly, as to the testimony of the
Spirit, we can have no assurance even from that, but
by our first believing, upon the reasons and induce-
ments above alleged ; seeing none can know that he
has the spirit of G-od, without knowing he is a sincere
Christian, and worshipper of God, which supposes the
truth of Scripture.

These things were highly necessary to be premised,
and cleared from all possible doubt, because nothing can
be necessary to salvation, till it appear that the Scrip-
tures are the truth of God, and to be our rule, by con-
sequence of that which God has given us to judge and
determine the truth of things by — namely, reason.

SECTION III.
1. OF THE BOOKS.

The Holy Writings, which, by way of eminence and
for their high Importance, we call t/ie Scriptures and the
Bible, are certain books containing two Testaments, the
Old to the Jews, His peculiar people, and Church be-
fore the coming of the Messiah ; and the New Testa-
ment left by our Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah now
come, and pertaining to both Jew and Gentile, prose-
lyted to Christ's religion, and by which we have title
' John, iv., 42.

;94< THE TRUE EELIGIOX.

salvation, and inheritance of the life everlasting.
?hese Sacred Volumes, namely, the matter contained
a them, delivered from God the Father, and His Son
"esus, by the Holy Ghost ; first to the patriarchs, then
Moses and the prophets ; after that, to the apostles,
nd from them to their successors down to the present
ge we live in, (as we shall make appear) contain the
ndoubted oracles of God, and the mysteries of our
alvation. For after the voice of the Lord Jesus, who
3 the Bridegroom, Pastor, and Bishop of our souls,
he Church, His Spouse, is to be heard ; and She it is
j^ho has been the keeper and preserver of this celestial
'epositum, not as the Mother, but the Nurse; not the
oundation, but the angular stone ; not the fountain,
tut the stream, which has from hand to hand conveyed
us this precious and inestimable treasure.

The Holy Scriptures, delivered by Divine Revela-
ion, Inspiration, Voices, Visions, &c., are either,

\. Historical ; 2. Legal, or Ritual ; 3. Prophetical;^
'. Sapiential, or Doctrinal.

As to the time they were first written and published,
re have already proved them the most ancient, some
lefore the Captivity, namely, from Moses to Zepha-
liah ; some during the Captivity, as Ezekiel, Daniel,
ic ; and some after, as Haggai, Zacharias, Malachi ;
if which more in this Chapter.

Those of the New Testament consist likewise of —
. History ; 2. Doctrine ; and, 3. Prophecy : First, the
^'our Evangelists, with the Acts of the Apostles, who
)lanted the Christian Faith immediately after the
descent of the Holy Ghost, enabling them by an ex-
' n. Pet., i., 19, 20, 21.

THE TEtTE RELIGION.

395

traordinary gift of tongues, and opening their minds, to
understand the Scriptures, to publish it among all na-
tions. 2. Then the Epistles, written by the Apostles to
the Churches they had converted. 3. The Apocalypse,
or Revelation of things recondite and of unknown
event, importing prophecies of things to come. These
being aU the genuine and undoubted books of Holy
Scripture, this last shuts up the Canon, and they are
reckoned in this series :

SCRIPTURES.

OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.

OF THE NEW.

Genesis.

Exodus.

Leviticus.

Numbers.

Deutero-

L

nomy.

J rPsalms.
■| J Proverbs.
•5, 1 Ecclesiastes. I""
'f. |_Canticles.

'Isaiah.

. Jeremiah.

.|.J Lamenta-

S I tions.

■* Ezekiel.

.Daniel.

'Hosea.

Joel.
i Amos.
g, Obadiah.
fi Jonah.
I I Micaiah.

ISTahum.

Habakkuk.

Zephaniah.

Haggai.

Zechariah.

Malachi.'

rjoshua.
Judges.
Ruth.

I. Samuel.

II. Samuel.
% I. Kings.
I J II. Kings.

1 I. Chronicles.S'
II. Chronicles.
Ezra.

Nehemiah.
Esther.

.Job.

' His Prophecy reaches to John the Baptist, and so unites both
Testaments.

2 Written (circ. A. D. 94) to the Churches of Asia. It seals
the Canon. Kev. xxii., 18. "If one add or take from a rule, it
ceases to be a rule." S. Chrysos. Horn. 12, in Phil. 3.

Matthew. i

Mark. g James.

Luke. < I. Peter.

John, written | II. Peter.

ina°. 97. °-^ I. John.
Acts, by St. ■= 11. John.

Luke I III. John.

rThe Romans, f | Jude.

I. Corinthians. '^ L

II. Cormthians. Apocalypse.'
Galatians.
Ephesians.
Philippians.
Colossians.

I. Thessalonians.

II. Thessalonians.

I. Timothy.

II. Timothy.
Titus.
Philemon.
Hebrews.

!96 THE TRUE RELIGION.

APOCRYPHAL BOOKS ;

•^ot received as Canonical Scriptures, but containing,
)esides many excellent moral sentences and instruc-
ions, the history of what happened from the Captivity,
,ndlast of the Prophets (AnnoMundi 3589, to the year
1875), approaching the coming of the Messiah, Anno
lOOO. They are fourteen in number.

I. Esdras. Baruch (with Jeremiah's Epistle

n. Esdras. to the Captives).

Tobit. Song of the Three Children.

Judith. Susanna ; Bel and the Dragon.

Esther (a fragment). Manasseh's Prayer in captivity.

Wisdom. I. Maccabees.

Ecclesiastes. 11. Maccabees.

VTiich yet the Church (as St. Jerome affirms) does
How to be read, for example and instruction; but
either proves nor pretends to establish any doctrine
ipon them.'

So that whatever books have been imposed since the
yanon, as containing necessary doctrine, and saving
ruth, we are in nowise to receive them as such.

Now, the means to distinguish them is, amongst
ther marks, to trace the tradition ; and if we find the
.octrine delivered to have taken beginning any time
Ince the Sacred Canon was fixed, we are to reject
hem as spurious. This well observed pares ofi" innu-
lerable superadditions from that Church, which has
uch an interest to advance her own traditions, not
nly as equal, but above the Holy Scriptures. Ejus
nim Pontificis auctoritas major est, quam Scripturm?

1 Jerom. Proleg. in Lib. Solom : ad Cromat. et Heliod.
^ Silvest. Dial-adver. Luth., &c. Gregory, vii., Diet. 16, Con.
loman.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 397

On the contrary, when, in tracing a tradition, we dis-
cover no footsteps, when it was not used, we may pre-
sume it to be, though haply not jure divino, yet jure
Apostolico. Such are the order of Bishops in the Chris-
tian Church, immediately succeeding the Apostles, In-
fant baptism, Confirmation, the more solemn Fasts, and
Preparations before the anniversaries of our Lord's
Passion, and the like. And those who hold the Scrip-
tures clear in all things necessary to salvation, have no
reason to exclude the tradition of the Church in these
things.

"We now, then, proceed to the Testimonies, which
prove the Canonical Scriptures only to have been in
all ages of the Church the same which we at this day
receive, and for such acknowledge them. And for this
we need go no farther than to that excellent history of
the late Bishop of Durham,' my intimate acquaintance,
compiled when, by his Majesty King Charles the First's
command, he officiated in my father-in-law's ^ chapel at
Paris, during that horrid rebellion which banished his
present Majesty and many of his loyal subjects out of
England ; endeavouring to destroy the Church thereof,
and consequently the most primitive under the cope of
Heaven. But God Almighty, who first reformed this
Church, and so signally restored it, will, I trust, still
maintain and preserve it to the end of the world.

It is from this Treatise that we shall assert this
Article ; and first show why the Books of Holy Scrip-

' Dr. Cosin's " Scholastical History of the Canon of Holy
Scripture."

^ Sir Richard Browne, Resident for his Majesty there, from
1641 to 1660.

398 THE TRUE RELIGION.

ture are called Canonical. They are named Canonical,
as being tlie rule by whicli we are to square all our
actions, and are, therefore, by the Fathers, called 8ta-
teram Trutinam, by which we are to weigh, as well as
square, measure, and examine our faith and belief.

Now, although the Jews counted no more in their
Canon than do the Reformed Churches at present, yet
they ranged them not into so many classes ; for they
made three only. In the first of these was only the
Pentateuch : 2. All the Prophets : S. Sacred "Writers, as
they called them, distinguished from the Prophets, for
that they had not the mission of Prophets, though in-
spired by the same spirit of truth. Of the first rank,
were Moses' five Books ; of the second, four of the first
Prophets, and four of the latter ; and then, thirdly, the
Hagiographi, nine; making up in all twenty-two, ac-
cording to the number of the Hebrew Letters ; as being
all of them written in that tongue (then vulgar), except
Daniel and Ezra, in the Chaldean, which they best
understood. But in this recension Ruth is but an ap-
pendix to Judges, as Lamentations are to Jeremiah.
Nor are Samuel and Kings accounted more than two
Books. Then, the twelve minor Prophets, but as one
Book, and thence called the Book of the Prophets.'
And so, both the Chronicles were reckoned but as one,
as also Ezra and Nehemiah. The reason why they set
the Book of Chronicles in the last place was, for their
containing, as it were, an epitome of all former pas-
sages, from Adam to their reduction from captivity, and
so closed up the entire Bible.

All these Books are generally thought to have been
' Acts, vii., 42. Conf. Amos, v., 25, 26.

THE TEUE RELIGION. '6dd

thus digested, examined, and revised, by Ezra, the
priest, after their return from Babylon, and so delivered
to posterity. Nor did our Blessed Saviour speak of
any other Scriptures but Moses and the Prophets, no
more than did His Apostles after him.' Thus the
same number of Books and Authors stood the first cen-
tury ; and, in the second, as appears by the Apostolical
Constitutions and Canons, where they have not been
interpolated ; also, by Dionysius, the Areopagite, Mel-
lito, anno 160, Justin Martyr ; in the third century, as
v^ritness Origen, Julius Africanus, TertulHan, St. Cy-
prian ; in the fourth, Eusebius, the first General Coun-
cil of Nice, St. Athanasius, St. Hilarius, St. CyrU, the
Council of Laodicea, St. Epiphanius, St. Basil, St.
Gregory Nazianzen, St. Chrysostom, and, above all of
this century, St. Jerome, Ruffinus. In the fifth cen-
tury, by the great St. Augustine, Innocent the First,
the Councils of Carthage and Chalcedon ; in the sixth,
Cassiodorus, Primasius, Anastasius, Leontius, Victo-
rinus ; in the seventh, St. Gregory the Great, Isidore,
the sixth Council of Constantinople in Trulla. In the
eighth century, Damascenus, the venerable Bede ; in the
ninth, Alcuinus, Nicephorus, Strabus, &c. ; in the
tenth and eleventh, Radulphus Flaviacensis, Hermanns,
Giselbertus. In the twelfth century, Zonaras, Ruper-
tus, Honorius, Hugo de Sanct. Victore, Philip Sali-
tarius, Gratianus, Petrus Comestor, Johannes Salis-
buriensis, Balsamer. In the thirteenth century, Hugo
Cardinalis, Thomas Aquinas, and the Schoolmen, the
1 Luke, xxiv., 27, 44, 45 ; Acts, xxvi., 22— xxiv., 14 — xxviii.,
23 ; Hebr., i., 1 ; II. Tim., iii. 16.

tUO THE TEUE RELIGION.

jrlossers on the Bible; in the fourteenth, Nicephorus
^allistus, Johannes Columna, Brito, Nicholas Lira.
n the fifteenth century, Thomas Anglicus, Thomas
lYaldensis, Paulus Burgensis, Alphonso Tolatas, Dio-
lysius Carthusianus. In the fourteenth and last, being
ust before the present century, Francis Ximenes,
r. Picus Mirandula, Jacob Faber Stapalensis, Ludo-
'icus Vives, Erasmus, Cajetanus, the famous Trans-
ators of all the Bibles hitherto ; all these being either
jreek or Latin Fathers, Martyrs, Confessors, Bishops,
divines, and the most renowned persons for sanctity
,nd learning of both Eastern and Western Churches,
(len of undoubted credit.

The whole stream of the Catholic Church thus hands
[own to us the Canon of the Sacred Scriptures, with
ne voice, from all the famous, countries and churches
a the Christian world, till, by a new (and never till
hen heard of) Decree of a packed Assembly at Trent,'
gainst all the above-mentioned authorities, are adopted
he Apocryphal Books into the Canon, damning all
leople who receive them not pari auctoritate with the
indoubted Oracles of God. And that only and visibly
support certain corrupt dogmas and dangerous errors
Q religion, for the advantage of the Court of Rome,
,nd the tyranny, pride, and covetousness of an interested
larty, as may at large be seen in the author^ of the
listory of that pretended Council, contrary to the suf-
rages of the most learned and religious amongst them,
,nd of all the Princes and other Potentates who sent
heir ambassadors. The Protestants, however, who
ame, and such as came with any intention to reform
1 Sess., iv. 2 Sleiden.

THE TRUE RELIGION'. 401

errors and abuses, were not admitted, which would
have made it a free and Ecumenical Council.

Thus, to gratify the Roman Pontiff against the uni-
versal testimony of Scripture, Councils, Fathers, School-
men, Doctors, and learned Divines, of all former and
subsequent ages, do they advance their new and im-
written traditions, as sacred and canonical, and to be
received with the same filial affection and reverence.

The reverend Council, who stamped their Canon to
represent the whole Christian Church, was composed of
about forty Bishops, of whom many Avere only titular
and pensioners to his Holiness, and some without any
learning. Of the Greek Church, they had not one
Bishop, but one from England, none from Germany,
Helvetian, or Northern countries; two from France
and Spain.'

Behold the goodly Ecumenical Council, which durst
equal those Books with the all-sacred and venerable
Scriptures — books which had been rejected and excluded
by such a cloud of witnesses as we have produced.
And that to establish doctrines totally repugnant to
the Cliristian truth, delivered by our Blessed Lord, as

' Thus writes the ingenuous historian, who himself was pre-
sent. Audax inceptum videbatur, quinque Caxdinales et quadra-
ginta et octo Episcopos auctoritatem Canonicam libris antea incer-
tis et apooryphis dare. In his tamen prtesulibus noH temerfe re-
periri aliquem prascellentis doctrinse, laude insignum ; Leguleios
esse aliquot, in juris professione forte doctos, sed religionis non
admodrim intelligentes, paucos Theologos, eosqueeruditione intra
vulgus Theologorum, plerosque Aulicos ; ex iis aliquos titulares
tantiim, et Episcopos magnam partem Civitatum adeo minutarum, ut
si quisque Clerum et populum, cui praesit, referat, vix omnes millesi-
mam orbis Christiani partem repraesentent. Hist. Con. Trent., lib. ii.

VOL. I. DO

402 THE TRUE RELIGION.

we shall come at large to show in the eleventh chapter
of this Treatise. But this is that Church which has
presumed to make new Articles of Faith, and to ana-
thematize and curse all those who receive them not for
Gospel, thereby condemning, with unheard-of insolence,
all those ages. Fathers, and Writers, who have faith-
fully adhered to primitive truth.

In the mean time, as to the Apocryphal Books, —
though we acknowledge them useful, both for the his-
torical and instructive part (as are many other excel-
lent books not divine), yet were they never admitted
for authentic Scripture ; nor were they written in the
Holy tongue, no, nor so much as translated by the
Septuagint ; but they were first written by the Helle-
nist dispersed Jews in Persia and Egypt, never owned
by the ancient Hebrews, or once cited by our Blessed
Saviour or the Apostles ; nor were they used of old to
be read in churches, and, when permitted, with the
caution, not as to establish any new doctrine or faith
upon them ; nor were they read by the Bishop there,
but by some inferior minister, in a lower part of the
Assembly.' For there had been, from time to time,
divers vagrant pieces (to which we do by no means
compare the Apocrypha, which, after those of the un-
doubted Canon, we esteem preciously), endeavoured to
be vended and imposed upon the world for authentic
and divine.

' Non tut6 cuivis est credendum libro,
Qui venerandum nomen S. Scripture praBferat,
or,
Qui Biblici pnenomen augustum ferat.

Amphiloc. Ep. ad Seleucum.

THE TEUE RELIGION. 403

Plato tells us of certain agyrtm and Impostors of his
time, who went about with such ware under the names
of MusEeus and Orpheus;' that under such splendid
and famous titles they might allure men to buy their
books. The argument of these were divers forms of
expiations for the most prodigious and horrid impieties ;
at the bare recital of which conjurations they were
absolved.^ About P. Gelasius's time there was a world
of supposititious writings vended and received by the
heretics. How long has that spurious Hermes Trls-
megistus cheated the people ? Pastor, Dionysius the
Areopagite, Epistle of St. Bernard, Enoch's prophe-
cies, &c. ? Liturgies ascribed to the Apostles, Sybil-
line Oracles, Christ's Letter to Agbarus, the Gospel of
St. James, and that of Nicodemus, &c., most of which
are very happily now lost. Indeed, divers of the
Fathers did often cite these Apocryphal books under a
venerable name, as also they sometimes did the Fourth
of Esdras, the prophecy of Enoch, &c., under the title
of Scripture, as in a large and popular sense, but not
as canonical and divine, but only to distinguish them
from mere profane and common.

In sum, it is enough to determine this, that there is
neither Bible, manuscript or printed, which has any
catalogue set before it, to decree what books were
canonical; but the known and universally-received
Prologue of St. Jerome, distinguishing the canon from
the Apocryphal, both particularly and exactly, as all
the ages, since his time to this, agree, that of the Synod
of Trent excepted, which is of no validity. To this add

^ For these see Dr. Wake.

D D 2

04 THE TEUE RELIGION.

lie testimony of Josephus/ as cited by Eusebius,^ above
11 we have named. As to those Books of the New
Testament, which some critical persons • made some
cruple about, as St. Paul to the Hebrews, St. James's
'iJpistle, the Second Epistle of Peter, the Second and Third
f St. John, Jude, and the Revelation of St. John, attri-
luted to Cerinthus, the heretic ; it can never be made
lut that they were rejected by any entire Church,
Council, or sober author : but of this anon.

Some of the Sapiential books, and others, not re-
eived into the canon, were (as we have showed) per-
nitted to be read to the people for instruction and
incouragement, for their many wise sentences and
Qoral lessons contained in them ; and for the examples
if constancy of some excellent persons; and because
hey continue the thread of Sacred History of the Old
o the near approach of the New Testament ; but were
tiU accounted Apocryphal and out of the list.

Indeed, St. Paul, writing to the Romans, and Corin-
hians at Athens, cites Aratus, the poet Menander, a
jomedian, and Epimenides, or, as some will have it,
Uallimachus ; and so also Jannes and Jambres are names
lot found in the canon, but likely out of some Talmud
)r record. So St. Jude^ mentions a passage from
Enoch not extant. But then the things are both cer-
;ainly true, and such as give greater light to the sub-
ect treated on. And to such Apocrrjpha we have still
;reat veneration. But that any thing suspicious
»uld be foisted, or creep, into the Holy Text, seems
norally impossible ; so many, that is to say, no less

' Joseph, cont. Apion., 1. 1. = Eccles. Hist., 1. 3, c. 9.

' Jude, 14.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 405

tlian twelve copies being delivered to every tribe, and
80 many again by them to every particular Synagogue f
while the originals were kept in the ark with all imagi-
nable care;' as they were afterwards by the Christian
Church, and translated into so many languages. And
this by persons of different countries and religions too,
yet all agreeing in most material points. For, as to
the various lections, they are not at all considerable,
in prejudice to any point of doctrine or history ; and,
therefore, we do not condemn the study of good letters,
tongues, and other helps of human learning, but em-
brace and encourage them. The small differences
occasioned by their criticisms are no way capable of
shaking the foundation of the faith contained in them ;
not to pass over that where there are really any difS-
culties, they are still useful to humble us, and defend
us from the superstition of the simple letter, and doat-
ing upon terms.

It has been said by some,^ that the Pentateuch were
but collections of certain ancient Jews, rather prescribed
by Moses than compiled by him. And, as to the Book
of Job, that it was written by Moses, or (as some think)
before him, and is, therefore, the most ancient of books ;
that though the ground of the history be true, yet that
the dialogue with his friends is amplified and adorned,
to make the narration the more useful and agreeable ;
nothing of which invalidates any thing of then- being
divine. *

> These were dispersed through all the world when the Jews
were scattered, so as they could never come together to forge or
contrive any thing to corrupt the sacred books.

^ Spinosa, &c.

06 THE TRUE EELIGION.

Xow, whether the Epistle to the Hebrews was
iTitten by St. Paul, Luke, Barnabas, or Clement, is
3 little material, since we find him to have talcen out
sveral passages, word for word, from his Divine
jpistles ; and, as to the rest of the chapters, the accu-
ate examination of so many learned, great, and holy
ersons, acknowledging them for genuine ; we have, in
articular, the suffrages of Justin jMartyr and Irenjeus,
gnatius and Polycarp — men who lived so near the
ime of the Apostles, as to have some of them conversed
hemselves with them. < Nor were they yet admitted
cito the Sacred Canon without the utmost caution,
ccurate sifting, and examination. That they were at
11 questioned proceeded from their being directed and
ddressed to particular Churches, and not to all ; which
ubjected them to the proof, and that, doubtless, by pro-
ucing the originals themselves (for many such there
i^ere in Tertullian's time), to the entire satisfaction of
he Churches ; as that of St. ]Mark's Gospel is affirmed
o be yet extant at Venice. And since we have men-
ioned this Evangelist, it is noted that the last chapter
if that Gospel was found but in some few copies, and,
herefore, indeed, rejected by some, but for no approved
cason. That St. John writ his is thought to be, for
hat the other three had related the history of but one
ear only of our Blessed Saviour's life, namely, from
>t. John the Baptist's imprisonment to our Lord's death.

Esther was left out of the Jewish canon, as some
iffirm; and, indeed, the six last chapters are not in
he Hebrew, but seem to have been added by some Hel-
enistic Jews.

Now, as to the objection that there was not always

THE TRUE KELIGION. 4U/

an universal assent as to these and other books more
lately received into the canon, it lasted but a little
while, namely, till things and circumstances (as we
said) could be duly examined, and nothing imposed and
obtruded on the world but what was genuine and
authentic ; it being soon found that the books we now
own for such were owned and received by the Church ;
and that such as were at all questioned retained no-
thing which concerned the faith, or any morals disso-
nant from those books, which never were called in ques-
tion. And for those which were as above mentioned,'
supposing (but not granted) them not to have been so
immediately dictated by the Holy Ghost, the Christian
Doctrine was able to defend itself without them. The
controversy relates not to their antiquity and truth,
but to the writers ; all of them being acknowledged to
have been penned by Apostolic men in the Apostolic age.

Daniel of the Old Testament was, it seems, one of the
last received by the Jews, for fear (it is beheved) of pro-
voking those tyrannical princes whom these prophecies
concerned ; and the like is conceived oiSt. John's Berela-
tions, who was the last of the Christian Prophets. Not
that it did yet utterly expire in him, since we find the gift
unto Justin Martyr's time, who lived 150 years after
Christ ; but, however It might be given to any, it was not
60 as to add any thing to the Scripture, though many
admirable virtues of the Holy Spirit did manifest them-
selves by them. The like may, haply, be safely afiSrmed
of that Second Epistle of St. Clement to the Corinthians,
breathing of an Apostolic spirit ; the first especially, as
thoueht to have been written before the canon was fixed,

' See Pole's Synopsis Crit. in Apocal. Vol. ult., 1659, &c.

4l»8 THE TEUE EELIGION.

and has, after a thousand years that it lay hidden, been
pronounced truly authentic. We have a no less ancient
copy of it in His Majesty's St. Hecla's Bible at St.
James's. To this might I add the Epistle of Poly carp
to the Philippians, and those seven of ^S*^. Ignatius, pub-
lished by the learned Isaac Vossius from a Florentine
manuscript, as our late Bishop Usher had done before.
To return, then, to the Old Testament. It is certain,
that the later Prophets ceased in Malachi, about the
reign of King Darius, to the end that they might expect
that New Dispensation of the Messiah now approaching,
and prophecied of by Joel. ' Of this St. Peter makes use,
to take off the admiration of the Jews, when, on the day
of Pentecost, the Holy Ghost was so plentifully effused.
Whence St. John the Evangelist^ calls it the Testimony
of Jesus; and St. Paul, his imparting gifts of men. ^

2. COPIES.

We shall now say something concerning the Copies of
the Sacred Oracles, and what more we find doubted of
and rejected by the Church. Such were those we to
this day esteem Apocrypha. For, though St. Jerome
says he had seen Ecclesiasticus, Tobit, and the First of
Maccabees in the holy tongue, yet he brings them not
into the canon, no more than Wisdom, Baruch, the addi-.
tions to Esther and Daniel, which that learned Father
would not meddle withal.

That the Book of Wisdom, attributed to Solomon,
was composed by some Hellenistic Jew (probably Philo),
in imitation of that wise king, is universally conjectured.
IwdLQ&A, Ecclesiasticus is cited by Josephus a^awsi Appion,

' Joel, ii., 28. » Kev., xix., 10. ' Ephes., iv., 8.

THE TRUE EELIGIOX. 409

as If it had been canonical ; but it is plain that it has
been since added to Josephus's text, and is not to be
found in the ancient version of Ruffinus.

St. Jerome utterly rejects Barueh in his Preface to
Jeremiah, as also Tobit, Judith ; and the Books of the
Maccabees are, by Eusebius, put in the rank of Josephus
and Africanus. And, therefore, we are not to account
them Divine ; for that we sometimes (as was noted) iind
the Fathers, now and then, in their writings under a
divine epithet, since it is evident Origen, St. Jerome,
and St. Hilary, who cite them, enlist them among the
Apocrypha, and, as Pope Gregory' acknowledges, were
published only for the edification of the Church.

It is, indeed, pretended that the Maccabees, and some
other of those books, were adopted into the canon by
the Council of Carthage, about four hundred years after
Christ ; but this is a false report, nor had they any
such character tiU the Council of Trent ; and it is enough
to read the two last verses of the second of Maccabees
quite to uncanonize them.

There is a Latin version of St. Barnaby's Epistles,
and a good part of the Greek original, believed to be
his, as making use of the same passages which Clemens
Alexandrinus, Origen, Eusebius, and St. Jerome cite ;
but we find it full of fables and allegories, not at all
becoming the Apostolic spirit. The Liturgies of the
Apostles are likewise rejected; and, indeed, those sym-
bols and creeds, which pass under their names, although
containing the most solid and material articles and rules
of our faith, are only believed to have been composed by
the Apostles; Euffinus being the very first of the
' Gregor., 1. 12, Moral.

410 THE TRUE EELIGION.

fifth century who affirms it, yet hut as a popular tradi-
tion. Of the same credit (for author) are their canons
and constitutions, as appears by the mention of temples,
catechumens, festival days, and some absurd and fabulous
things ; as the permitting female slaves to be corrupted
by their masters, with the like.i For the Constitutions
are but of the third age, and have, from time to time,
been much changed, augmented, and corrupted.

But besides the Creeds attributed to the Apostles,
three more, namely, that of Aquileia, the Oriental, and
the Roman considerable differ ; the Articles of CathoHo
Church, Communion of Saints, and Eternal Life, being
left out and wanting.

Lastly, the Acts of the passion of St. Andrew are of
the same credit, and also the Books of the Sybils ; it
being neither agreed on what their names or numbers
were. Those which the Fathers have cited were
thought only what some Christians have invented;
those good men not so critically sifting out matters as
other learned persons since have done, but taking much
on trust. Accordingly, they cited, now and then, Hys-
taspes, Trismegistus, and others of great name in those
early times ; for it was hard to find when their prophe-
cies were written ; nor indeed, made they much noise
before Antoninus's time.

I shall say nothing as to that passage in Josephus*
concerning our Blessed Saviour, it being yet thought a
pious fraud inserted.

Of the Book of the Pastor, called Hermas, a disciple
of the Apostles, we have already spoken, and it was re-
ceived by divers churches, and is cited both by Irena3us,
' L. 3, c. 1, and 1. 8, c. 32. ^ Antiq., 1. 18., c. 4.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 411

Origen, &c. ; but, it being so full of visions, it has
lost its credit. Let us, then, hear St. Augustine:'
" So dangerous is it in matters of religion hastily to
believe every pretended spirit, and greedily to swallow
whatever has the show of piety, without considering
whether it be truth." Let those, then, who embrace
the Council of Trent's decree, take heed lest they fall
into this specious snare.

"Wherefore, as to these books we have mentioned,
and others of that rank, if they be not written by the
dictate of the Holy Spirit, let us with Tertulhan^ fear
the woe denounced to such as shall offer to add to or
detract from the Sacred Word, which St. Athanasius^
assures us are self-sufficient. Believe, says he, what is
written ; what is not, seek not. It is a manifest apos-
tacy from the faith, and an argument of arrogancy,
either to reject any of those things which are, or in-
troduce such as are not written : Ut discatis in verbis,
supra id quod scriptum est, non sapere.*

In the mean time, we derogate nothing from any of
those excellent Writings, recommended to be read to
the Catechumens of old, both wisely and piously, as
books which set forth (besides the historical part) the
resurrection and happy state of the righteous after this
life.' And there are worthy lessons in the Books of

' Non fit religio nostra in phantasmatibus nostris ; melius est
enim qualecunque verum, quam omne quicquid pro arbitrio fingi
potest ; melior est vera stipula, quam lux inani cogitatione pro sus-
picantis voluntate formata. — De Ver. Eel., c. 55.

- Tertull. contr. Hermog., c. 22.

' Orat. ad Gent. De vera ac pia fide.

* Basil. Hom., 9 ; Deut., iv., 12 ; Gal., 1, 8.

5 See n. Mace, ii., 7 ; Esdras, iv., 41, 42.

12 THE TRUE RELIGION.

Visdom, Ecclesiasticus, and others, recommending the
iw of God to the Gentiles, and showing Atheists and
ersecutors of the saints that there is a state after
eath. So the Song of the Three Children, &c. All
reparatory to usher in the Gospel, which more plainly
lught those things, and refined the law.

The Jews (as we have noted) were by St. Augustine
cknowledged the keepers of the Sacred Depositum,^
nd that, certainly, with all imaginable care ; not only
efore, but all along during, their captivity ; at what
,me they settled in a deep resolution to detest all idols,
nd to teach and observe the law with all sincerity for
lie future.

There is a copy of Genesis in Sir Robert Cotton's
brary, thought to be of very great antiquity.^

The Gospel of St. Matthew, and the Epistle to the
lebrews, were believed to be written in Hebrew for
be Jews of the Circumcision ; but it rather appears
have been in the Tlierosolymitan Chaldee, as in the
?arguni, and only penned with the Hebrew character.

S. EDITIONS.

The first editions of the Books of Scripture after
rloses were doubtless that of Esdras, whom the Jews
ailed the second Moses," and of the great Sanhedrim,
fter their return from Babylon. They collected the
everal books from several places, and reduced them
ato one entire volume, correcting what was amiss, and
onstituting the Canon of the Old Testament ; and all
ly Divine authority, there being then amongst them

' Capsarios Ecclesise.

* [Since deposited in the British Museum.] ' Alterum Mosem.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 413

divers of tlic prophets surviving, as Haggai, Zacharias,
Miilachi, and, aa some believe, Daniel himself.

This book had, besides, sundry other editions, after
Christ's Ascension, as well by Jews as Christians. Of
these the more celebrated was the Tiberius Masoreth,
who added the points for the more easily reading the
text, about A.D. 500. Since that, it has all been exa-
mined by divers famous Rabbins from several copies,
though, indeed, we have few so ancient as the Greek,
because, after the Masoreth critics and punctuation, the
Jews esteemed no books that were not conformed to
tlieirs ; so that all others were neglected.

4. TRANSLATIONS.

Now, when the Gift of Tongues ceased, necessary
for the first founding of the Church, holy and learned
men began to translate the Scriptures into the vulgar
languages, never intending to conceal their sacred
knowledge from the people.

The very first and most famous was that of the
tSiVcntii, called the Septuagint. This it was, that almost
all that followed, took for their original, as used not
only by the most ancient Fathers, but by our Lord
Jesus Christ Himself and the Apostles; albeit some-
times seeming to be different from the Hebrew text, as
Irenajus proves.' The story of this renowned version
is related by Aristajus, a Jew, and favourite of the
Prince's. That Ptolemy^ Philadelphus, sending a solemn

' Iren., 1. 3, c. 25.

' [B. C, 284. The richest prince of his age. During his
reign, Alexandria was the asylum of learned men, — he greatly
augmented the famous library there, which was afterwards de-
stroyed by fire.]

414! THE TKUE EELIGION.

embassy to Eleazar, the high priest, son of Onias,
brother to Simon the Just, desired the high priest to
send hun a copy of the Holy Books, which he did,
with seventy-two learned doctors, six of every tribe,
skilful in both tongues, Hebrew and Greek. These,
having a quiet place assigned them in a certain island
near the city, finished the whole translation in seventy
days, and, bringing their works to be compared, (for
they all had their several cells apart) found a punctual
agreement throughout, without the least diflference,
to a tittle. For which they were not only royally re-
warded, and sent back with rich presents to the high
priest, but had granted them the freedom of a hundred
thousand Jewish slaves.

But this celebrated translation is thought to have
been lost in the wars of Jvdius Cajsar, when that glori-
ous library was burnt, and in it seven hundred thousand
volumes. Some yet afiirm that the copy escaped the
flames, and was to be seen at Serapio, in the time of
St. Chrysostom. And, indeed, it is that Father who
has named it the forerunner of Christ, to prepare for
the reception of the Gospel by the Gentiles, — which
was before a sealed fountain. And so envious grew
the Jews afterwards, and so enraged at it, that the
Heathen should be thereby brought into the Church,
that they instituted a fast annually, to deplore the occa-
sion of it. For this having been published 277 years
before our Blessed Saviom-'s Incarnation, was, by the
especial Providence of the Almighty, a preparatory to
their more ready conversion ; the Greek tono-ue beino-
at that time almost the universal languaffe.

The particulars of this story, though strono-ly con-

THE TRUE EELIGION. 415

tested, is yet affirmed by Josephus, Philo, TertuUian,
Cyprian, Eusebius, and St. Jerome, who lived much
nearer those times than any who have since questioned
it. Indeed, as to their translating a part in so many
several cells, it is not very likely, since they must there
have been furnished with as many several copies;
whereas, we read of not above one which they brought
with them, in great ceremony, from Jerusalem. Be-
sides, the diversity of style shows no small discordance,
and makes it rather probable that every one took his
portion ; and so, they might easily finish it within the
time. And yet, though it differ in some words, it does
not in sense. It is likewise questioned by some, whether
they translated more than the Pentateuch, other Helle-
nistic Jews doing the rest. But neither of these is at
all material, there being indeed many Jews about this
time in Egypt and Alexandria, who enjoyed great pri-
vileges under the first Ptolemy, a lover of learning,
whilst they neglected their own language for their
affection to the Greek.

In the mean time, we do not insist upon AristsBUs's
credit for every circumstance of the story,' whilst the
version is of that universal credit, as never to have
been called in question, tUl the new Council of Trent
damned it, and all other but their Vulgate, contrary to
the suffrages of the most learned men even among
themselves.

Indeed, as to antiquity, the Samaritan Pentateuch
was brought them by those priests, who were sent to
instruct those schismatics, after their being infested by

' Those who contradict Aristseus's story may consult the learned
Joseph Scaliger, in his Notes upon Eusebius.

41t> THE TRUE RELIGIOJf.

lions ; and it is doubted whether that of the Seventy
was the first version out of the Hebrew, or rather that
of the Chaldean before Esdras. Nor is it unlikely that
at least some part thereof might have been done before ;
since both poets and historians, even amongst the
Heathen, mention so many things in their stories and
fictions, which they could no where have learnt but
from some of those Holy Books. So that from hence
it is, that St. Cyril calls Plato and Aristotle thieves
and robbers ; but, as we formerly noted, they concealed
their thefts, because the Jews were so despised a
nation.

But to proceed with translations and editions, which
were in Theodoret's time, as he affirms, almost innu-
merable. The next after the Greek might be the
Syriac, (a tongue so near to the Hebrew as sometimes
to be called Hebrew) not long since discovered, and of
most excellent use by the universal suffrage of learned
men, as being thought to be as ancient as the Apostles'
time, before the Canon was settled ; for it has not the
Epistle of St. Peter, nor St. John's story of the adul-
teress, nor the Apocalypse. It is also held to come
nearest the Original of any version, and therefore the
most uncorrupted. It was likewise consecrated (as it
were) by our Saviour and the Apostles, who preached
in that tongue, and which, though at this day by the
Turks introducing Arabic words, not so purely spoken
in those countries, was then vernacular, and is yet used
by aU the Christians in sacred offices, and divers learned
books on all subjects are still written in it.

There is, likewise, of the Oriental versions, that of
the Arabic, and very ancient, it being even at this day

THE TRUE RELIGION. 417

the most universal language In the whole world, as
well as the most elegant and copious. They have not
the Doxology, at the end of the Lord's Prayer, which,
being wont to be set in the margins, did, it seems, creep
into the text. There are also left out the seventh and
eighth verses of I. John, 5, which is likewise a mark
of the antiquity of that translation ; those verses being
added (as is believed) after the condemnation of j^rius,
as found in very few copies before.

The Abyssinians and Ethiopians have had all the
Holy Scriptures from the Seventy, which doubtless was
delivered to them by the Apostles, after the conversion
of the Eunuch by Philip. It was left out of our Wal-
ton^s Polyglott, because it could not be procured since
the Queen of Sweden, who once had it, lost it out of
her famous library.

The Persians have, moreover, the Holy Books in
their tongue; but by whom translated is not known.
The language is much corrupted from the ancient Per-
sian ; and what this was we are in the dark. Some of
their words yet remain in the Book of Esther, Daniel,
Nehemiah, Esdras.'

In the mean while, the Pentateuch having been
translated into that language by a Jew, out of the
Hebrew, for the use of his countrymen among that na-
tion, does wonderfully illustrate that passage of Jacob's
prophecy concerning the Messiah. We have a very
ancient copy of the Gospels out of the Syriac text,
which corroborates the esteem of that ancient version.

Other versions there were, as that of Aquila, a Jew
(a. D. 128), Theodosian, and Symmachus, which the
' Wheelock published the Persian Gospel.

A^OL. I. E E

418 THE TRUE EELIGION.

learned Origen disposed into his famous and elaborate
Hexapla (called the Adamantine, for the pains he took
in collecting them), adding a fifth and sixth, and so made
it an Octapla. But the three first revolting from the
Church to Judaism were soon rejected by it, and their
versions happily lost, as being very corrupt ; that,
therefore, of the Septuagint has continued its esteem,
as doubtless the very best ; nor did the Greek Church
use any other. It is confessed that it seems, in many
places, to have paraphrased rather than actually and
accurately translated, but so that neither our Blessed
Saviour nor His Apostles ever altered it, citing any text ;
and it being translated long before our Lord's Incar-
nation, takes away all pretence of its having been in-
terpolated by the Christians since. Besides, the Apo-
cryphal Books omitted by them is a good evidence against
their canonization, though, it must be confessed, that
some of those pieces were not then extant.

Come we now to the Latin. And, first of the Vul-
gate, or Vetiis, as thought almost as ancient as the
Apostles' time ; (and, indeed, how could they be without
it, that language being so widely spread through all the
Roman world ?) translated from the Septuagint. Who
was the author is not known. That also called the
Itala was mended by St. Jerome out of the Hebrew.
He indeed translated the Bible out of the Hebrew and
Greek twice ; of both which is the Vulgate now in use.
And, though there is nothing in it against the Faith, yet
never esteemed authentic, till they made it so at Trent.
Nor do we refuse the Vulgate, but use and prefer it for
its author, who was chiefly this learned Doctor. Not
because that Council said he was divinely assisted

THE TEUK RELIGION. 41 9

(wMlst he arrogates no such thing himself), but because
he follows the Hebrew text ad verhum,^ where the Sep-
tuagint has rather paraphrased. This seeming some-
what to depreciate that renowned version, made his
friend St. Augustine so concerned and angry, that, as
not being qualified with that public authority, it was
hardly at last, after many years, and a tacit consent,
made public use of; and then the old version was laid
by, till restored now again of late in this age of ours.''

St. Jerome's version, therefore, was but a private
work, done at his famous Recess at Bethlehem, by the
assistance of his Hebrew master, Barabanus. What
he did upon the New Testament was but mending and
comparing certain places with the Greek ; what on the
Old (as we showed), disliked at first, and not received
till after his decease. And, indeed, though he made
many Prologues and Apologies for attempting to put the
Holy Books into Latin (it having been done so well in
the Vulgate before), yet came his also to be called the
Vulgar, for its after so frequent use.

Thus, after St. Jerome, were few or no more attempts ;
till about A. D. 1500, or 1600, Lyranus and Burgensis
corrected, and Isodorus Clarus translated it ; but not
from the Hebrew text, till Pagninus, in 1623. After
that, the Complutensian, being that of Nobilius, and,
from the ancient text de now, Sebastian Munster,

' See Esdras, xvi.

' Note, that the Psalms remained yet in the Vulgate, and are
not St. Jerome's, hut were left as he found them in the Vetus,
because the people had them so perfectly by heart ; and so, with
the rest of those Books which the Jews received not into the
Canon, he meddled not — a good argument agamst the Apocrypha.

EE 2

■20 THE TEUE RELIGION.

)siander, the elegant Castalio, the Tigurin, Vatablus,
Tunius, and some others.

But now comes Sextus Qiiintus, with his new edition
if it, which he pronounces so exact, as made it anathema
mce to doubt of its perfection above all other. And
ret, Clement the Seventh produces yet a new one,
letecting the errors of his predecessors, and denouncing
he same curse on those who did not submit to his
ranslation, above all that went before ; so as to leave
he ancient Churches, who never had the Latin, nor
lave as yet, nor, if they had, do not understand it, in a
ad condition. So charitable a Mother is the Eoman
Jady !

Besides the version mentioned, St. Jerome translated
he Scriptures into the Dalmatian, his country's lan-
guage ; St. Chrysostom, into the Armenian ; St. Au-
gustine, into Punic; St. Cyril, or Methodius, into the
5clavonian ; UlpMlus, into Gothic ; Venerable Bede,
nto the Saxon ; into the German, Melchior Adam ; John,
3ishop of Seville, into the Arabic ; Jacobus de Vora-
line, into the old Italian; Leopoldus, into the Polo-
lian ; into old French, Charles the Fifth, their king.

Of later days, the Doctors at Douay published their
Bible, with a Comment full of trasL Erasmus, the
jreek Testament.

Amongst the Protestants, the most received was that
)f Tremelins, a converted Jew, compared with the
rlebrew text, and that of Junius. But the most ele-
gant New Testament, that of Theodore Beza, carries
;he voice among the foreign Keformed Churches, who
ret is thought sometimes to have taken too great
iberty, as in St. Luke, ix., 48, 53, and L Cor., xv., 55.

THE TRUE RELIGIOX. 421

Since these, there are, in the vulgar tongues, that of
John Diodati, in Italian, whose both translation and
notes, upon the difficult places, are worthily esteemed ;
as is also the paraphrase of our learned and pious
Dr. Hammond.

There was an old translation into English, done by
the holy martyr Tyndal; and, in Queen Elizabeth's
time, another after the Genoa Bible, with Notes and
ample Concordance. But that which was afterwards
published and reformed, by command of King James
tlie First, is thought to be one of the very best of the
modern, yet capable of improvement. There is one of
nearly four hundred years since, extant in the St.
James's Library.

I think most of the Bible and all the New Testament
has been translated very elegantly by the Jansenists,
into French, called the Testament Port-Royal.

It has also been translated into Welsh, or ancient
Gaul, by order of our pious princes, and into Irish and
Turkish, by Mr. Seaman. And thus went out their
sound into all the world.

Now, as touching the several editions, briefly: the
Venetian is the Aldine. Another is the Roman, from the
Vatican copy, a very ancient MS., by Cardinal Caraffa,
which is much esteemed.

Jay published his pompous Paris Edition, the very
worst of all, and most expensive.

Lastly, that of the learned and laborious Dr. Walton,
late Bishop of Chester, from the Alexandrian Manu-
script, sent by Sir Thomas Hoe to the blessed martyr.
King Charles the First, from Cyril Leucaris, who
brought it from Alexandria, when he was translated

22 THE TRUE RELIGION.

lience Patriaxcli to Constantinople, and is now in his
lajesty's library at St. James's; ' all written in capi-
als, upon parchment, without distinction of chapter,
erse, or even words, excepting now and then a section.
?his speaks it of very great antiquity ; and it is said to
ave been written by Tecla, a noble lady, about 1300
ears since, or a little after the first Nicene Council,
Itogether equal, if not superior, to that so celebrated
ne of the Vatican.

But, first I should have mentioned the Hebrew text,
i^ith the Masorite punctuation and Latin version ver-
atim. Then the Samaritan Pentateuch, in the ancient
lebrew character, common both to Jews and Samari-
ans, before Esdras altered it for the Chaldee, because
he long-captived Jews bad forgotten their own language.
Chen is placed the Septuagint, and, next it, the above-
iientioned Tecla s. After tliis, the Yetiis Vuhiatc, in
jatin, from the Seventy, promiscuously used (as we
lave shown) with St. Jerome's, till Gregory the Great ;
rom both which sprung the Vulgate Hodierna, cor-
ected by Popes Sextus V. and Clement VIII.

Then follows the Chaldee paraphrase, the Hiero-
olymitan Pentateuch ; that of Jonathan and the Per-
ian paraphrase ; the Ethiopic Psalter, and New Testa-
Qent; the Syriac version of the Old Testament; the
Arabic and Greek of Robert Stephens ; all interlined
s'ith the Latin, and so accommodated as, at one view,
me is master of them all, to the wonderful ease of the
eader. In this the painful compiler has outdone the

' [This extensive and costly library of MSS. was transferred, as
, gift to the public, to the British Museum, by the munificence of
leorge n.]

THE TKUE RELIGIOX. 4!;.i

famous attempt of the learned Origen's Octapla ; and
all that have come :\fter to this daj.

SECTION IV.
1. INTERPRETATIOX OF SCRIPTURE.

The consent of all these laborious and iamous ver-
sion?, which is admirable, considering the several dia-
lects, idioms, phrases, and other innmnerable circum-
stances, is an imdeniable arsrument of the truth in all
necessaries to salvation. And this, notwithstandino; all
those various lections, ■whose differences are only in
more minute points, almost impossible to have been
avoided in so many translations and transcribers, whom
God did not think fit to make infallible : in order to
excite the study and diligence of the faithfid, by pre-
serving copies, comparing and searching the Scriptm-es.
whilst the sense and text remained entire which most
concerned them ; so that all !Morini"s and Simon's ob-
jections fall to the ground. The learned Louis Capel-
lus ' shows how these divers readings have, by a won-
derful Providence, preserved rather the Holy text, in
such places as are most important ;, and many great
and pious Divines, instead of impediments, have found
them helps ; whilst in any difl&culty they have recourse
to the analogy of faith, ancient versions, writings of the
Fathers, and the like collations for that reading which
consents with antecedent, consequent, and parallel
places, with the aigiunent of other copies, &^c

Besides, the certainty of the text may be gathered by
any of the novel helps of points and accents, as it is
' Capell. Crit. Sacra, 1. vi^ c 5.

424 THE TRUE RELIGION.

both in the Syrian, Arabian, Persian, &c., and in cases
of ambiguity, by the help above-said. For, as to that
of Cainan's slipping into the text of I^uke, in our
Saviour's genealogy, it is likely it was from the imper-
tinence of the transcriber, who, seeing it in the margin,
put it into the text ; for ancient copies have it not. '
This being so, we are not concerned at the cavils of
Rushworth, who, in his Dialogues, would invalidate
the Holy Scriptures, to advance his tradition ; upon
evidence (as he pretends it) of common sense, that they,
being so full of doubts as to the genume translations
and transcripts even of the Originals, filled with such
numberless errata^ and men's skill in those languages
being so imperfect ; with other prejudices of that sort,
it seemed as evident to common sense that the Scrip-
tures produce no distinct resolution of controversy, though
otherwise indeed useful for instruction in virtue, and
so tending to discover the truth in matters of faith in
>j7'oss only ; and being read rather to know what is in it
than to judge by it ; but expecting from tradition what
is definite and certain, and so maintain the infalli-
bility of the present Roman Church.^

To this is answered that, if such uncertainty be In
either original or version,^ then are we as uncertain whe-
ther ever God made any such covenant as we read of
with Abraham, or gave Moses such a law, or at all
spake so by the Prophets. For, according to these, all
this is uncertain ; and so is let in a place for Atheists,
which already believe nothing of this.

' See Sparnheim, in his Dub. Evangel. Disput.
' To the same sense, the late Richard Simon, in his " Critical
Hist, of Old and New Testament." => Mr. Thorndike.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 425

If the Scriptures deceive us, which are written
Records, how much more obnoxious are we to oral
tradition ! If there be such difficulties in expression of
our minda, when we deliberate about what we write,
how much more subject are we to mistake in speaking !
Verbal reports we experimentally find so very incon-
stant and apt to err, and misrepresent things, done even
in our own time and very neighbourhood, either by
concealing the truth of narrations, or adding to them ;
and of this, indeed, common sense is a proper judge.
Nay, why (if this be otherwise) do men take such won-
drous care about their deeds and legal evidences, which
concern their temporal estates only, if writing be not
more certain and less apt to err than words ? Where-
fore, whatsoever is taught in Christianity is to be
proved by Scripture, whether tradition or laws of the
Church, though the evidence may depend on common
sense.

Now, whatever can be pretended to come from the
Apostles must first have been delivered by them in the
Hebrew or Syriac; at least, in that language they
spake, and which was so very near the Hebrew of the
Old Testament, that in the New it is called by that
name. From this being translated into Greek or Latin,
it must have come afterwards into the now modern
and vulgar languages. Now, can the meaning of the
Apostles' words be more certain than the meaning of
the written word ? Let common sense judge. And if
this be not so, to what purpose were the Israelites en-
joined to read and teach them to their children in the
written law ? Why did Christ our Lord bid us search
the Scriptures ? Why are the Bereans so celebrated

246 THE TRUE EELIGION.

for doing it, to find the truth of what was preached to
them ? In a word, wherefore is Dives sent to Moses
and the Prophets ? And why is it said that " all things
written in Scripture are for our learning that, through
patience and comfort of the Scripture, we might have
hope ?" and that all Scripture, inspired by God, is pro-
fitable for so many occasions ? And, lastly, wherefore
did the Fathers, who wrote so many volumes against
the heretics, allege Scripture continually against them ?
Shall we say they had not common sense? It is a
monstrous assertion, that nothing but probable truths
can be made out by Scripture ; peremptory and infal-
lible ones by tradition.

Then, as for Copies. It is very rare that the same
error falls out in most Copies ; and, if not, then is there
little danger of perverting the sense, there being so
many Copies to correct the peccant. In sum, unless it
be what the Socinian takes hold of from three or four
questionable texts about the Holy Trinity, in other
matters (notwithstanding the divers readings so much
talked of), there are none of any consequence, there
being evidence besides sufficient to preponderate all
that seems to interrupt.

Then, as to Languages. Certainly, those who spake
those learned tongues understood what they spake,
and heard others speak or write. The Books having
been preserved so carefuUy among the Jews some ages
even after Christ's Ascension, and how capable of ex-
pressing any the most abstruse matter, let what Maimo-
nides has written convince the doubter.

As for the Greek, the writings of the Apostles and
citations of our Blessed Saviour sufficiently manifest

THE TRUE RELIGION. 427

that the versions were agreeable even in the most diffi-
cult places of the Old Testament. Add to this the
translations of the Scriptures into so many languages
from the original, preventing the errors in the Copies,
and fixes the true reading, as the comparing of them
does their meaning and genuine sense. There have,
indeed, been attempts, from time to time, to corrupt
the Copies of the Holy Scriptures, to make them speak
to the sense of men's opinions ; some by inserting words
and periods, others by paraphrase, and some again pre-
tending to put them into better Greek. Of this an
instance is in that MS. (Greek and Latin), given by
Beza to the University of Cambridge. Of which he
says, Tantam in Lucw prwsertim Evangelio repertam esse,
inter Imnc Godicem et costeros quantumms veteres, discre-
pantiam, ut, vitandw quorundam offensionis assertan-
dum, potiusquam publicandum existimdrit. But, since
these petulancies have little or no eiFect as to the since-
rity of faith, and that there remain so many other in-
contestable helps to discern the true reading, we shall
need say no more upon this article.

We have further, for assistance of reading and un-
derstanding of diflSculties, (besides the many modern
helps) the Paraphrastical version, in the Chaldean tongue,
which was written about the time of Jonathan and
Onkelos, and which the Jews esteemed so sacred, that
they reported that, if but a silly fly lighted upon it, it
was immediately consumed by fire from heaven, with
other wondrous stories. However this be even idolized,
the Targum of Inachar is of great use, as being written
before our Saviour's time, who, according with it, cited
that of the twenty-second Psalm. It likewise attri-

428 THE TRUE RELIGION.

butes creation to the Word, as to a distinct person, and
as often mention of the Messiah coming, to be born of
a Virgin. It is written in the ChaldEeo-Syriac, which
was (as it is said) the vernacular of our Lord ; the pure
Hebrew having long before been corrupted in the
captivity.

It is very true that the Hebrew tongue, having very
few, that is to say, about 1022 roots, the rest being
derivative, occasions the using of the same words to
express several things, and may, now and then, occa-
sion mistake. But this, happening chiefly in the appel-
lation of things, makes little to the prejudice of the
main ; the names of plants, stones, animals, colours,
habits, &c., the Hebrews had but few of those known
to us. And so of proper names hard to turn into other
languages, as Chaffai (Heb.), Eve in Greek; Tor for
Tyrus ; and divers things are expressed by tropes and
figures, as God's appearances, angels, &c.' Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, are put for the whole Israelitish
people. The words rendered " for ever and ever" do
not always signify absolute duration. Sometimes, the
whole is by Synecdoche put for the part, as when Christ
is said to be three days in the grave ; whereas, it was
but one whole day, namely, Saturday, and part of
Friday and Sunday. Blood is also often used for homi-
cide. And, in the Prophetic style, time and times, and
half a time, for three years and a half. The river for
Euphrates ; Babylon for Rome ; salt, by metaphor, for
incorruption. Frequent ironies occur, as in the third

' There are various acceptations of the word spirit, &c., about
which Spinosa heaps so many instances to little purpose, besides
ostentation of being skilled in the Hebrew.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 429

of Genesis ;' and the last of the twenty-first of John's
Gospel is spoken by hyperbole. Vessel is put for the
body ; horn for power ; the rock for Christ and the
Church. Women and daughtersiov cities and countries.
Tlypallage, He set his tabernacle in the sun ; and by
Anthropopatkia, the members and senses of men.

Sometimes, again, symbols, hieroglyphics, &c., are made
use of; but, whilst taking and observing these rules,
the genuine sense is no way difficult in material points.
For, where the words of Holy Scripture may properly
be understood without wresting, we are to take them
as they lie before us, without trope or figure, but na-
tural construction ; unless, by doing so, any absurdity
follow, which is easily perceived. If any obscurer
passage be met with, we shall find it as plain, and in
some more perspicuous, and then take the latter. Mag-
nificl (says St. Augustine) et saluhriter Spiritus Sanctiis
ita Scripturas modificavit, ut locis apertioribus fami occur-
revet, obscurioribus fastigia detegeret. Nihil enimferl de
illis obscurifatibus eruitur, quod non pianissimo dictum
alibi reperiatur.^ To the same sense Clemens :' " There
is no darkness in the Word."

To this so universal are the voices of the Fathers as
would fill a volume to repeat, showing how plain they
are to the very ignorant; and yet, how mysterious
soever, discoverable to those who studiously mind them.
" The Holy Scriptures declare all things clearly,"^ says

' "Behold, the man is become one of us, to know good and
evil, and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree
of life, and eat and live for ever :'' ver. 22.

^ De doct. Christ., xi., 6. ' Clem, in Protrept.

' Ai aylai ypatpai iravra cra(j>ws SiaXfyovrai.

'i'.H) THE TKUE RELIGION.

Athanasius, speaking of the Deity of the Holy Ghost.
And to the same purpose Epiphanius, and many others.
What, then, can more encourage us to the searching of
those Scriptures, in which lie the treasures of eternal
life?

But to proceed with the rest of those rules, which
holy and exercised men have recommended for direction
of the greater difficulties, " things hard to be under-
stood ;" and of such there are not a few. In obscure
passages, we take the minimum, as uncertain how much
is meant ; for, if it mean the most, it is certain that the
least is included in it. In ambiguities, it is safest to
take both senses ; and, in controversies, where strong
arguments are produced for both opinions, to follow
that which includes the most, lest the truth escape us.

The Thomists and Monks fancy, as if every indi-
vidual text had an exposition analogical, historical, and
moral, a mere Jewish fancy. Where, therefore. Scrip-
tures are dubious, and have a latitude, though we mis-
understand them, it is no crime, provided we do our
best not to be deceived. For our understandings are
not free, as are our wills ; and this is a solid argument
to me, that if our Blessed Lord had laid such stress (as
too many now do upon such things), and had consti-
tuted an infallible understanding, an indispensable con-
dition of our salvation. He who bore that infinite love
to mankind would never have left things necessary to
salvation obscure and dubious, much less insuperable.
His only design being to save those who believed in
Him. Nor will a single error, not contracted through
our own fault, destroy us. God will, questionless,
allow and make abatement for natural and invincible

THE TEUE EELIGION. 431

infirmities, and other circumstances of constitution,
education, &c., by wliicli any may be fatally inclined to
such and such persuasion. Nor will He suflfer any pious
person, who humbly and devoutly seeks to know His
will, and resolves to hve thereafter, to perish for want
of suiBcient direction to do his duty, though there may
be many places of which he does not attain the true
meaning, and which yet are necessary to be known upon
other occasions and purposes, at one time or other, by
those who are more enlightened. He who seeks the
Scripture, with all the faith of the Church for his rule,
shall find the truth ; understanding by this faith what
he was taught at his baptism and after-instruction, as
motives of his faith.

But we are yet farther to mark likewise the scope,
intention, and coherence of the authors ; since bare
Scripture-letter is not the word of God, but the sense
and meaning of the Scripture. Wherefore, places are
to be compared according to analogy of faith, universal
tradition (I say universal, according to Lirinensis' com-
prehension) with what Councils have established.
Fathers, pious and learned men have written, but by no
means, and for reverence to any of these, taking any
sense in opposition to any Article of the Creed, by all
the ancients called the rule and standard of faith.

With this caution we are also to enquire at the
priest's lips ; for no prophecy is of private interpreta-
tion.' To this add, skill in the original tongues and
idioms, with all other moral helps. For the interpre-
tation of Holy Scriptures, how evident soever, is cer-
tainly a great mystery, considered as to its end. We
' Mai., ii., 7; II. Pet., i., 20.

432 THE TRUE RELIGION.

should, therefore, address ourselves with great modesty
and veneration, imploring assistance from the Lamb of the
tribe of Judah, who opens and no man shuts, and shuts,
and no man opens; even He who has the Key of David,
the Son of David, Christ the "Word Himself. Besides,
the greatest difSculties lie in the Old Testament, which
is rather a sealed book, than the New. And yet,
through the great and extraordinary care of the Jews,
the variety of readings were not nearly so many, or
material, as those in the New. But then, neither are
we without mighty helps from the most learned Com-
mentators, amongst whom the incomparable Grotius
lias deserved the highest esteem of the Church, and
may indeed serve instar omnium.

Now, when we say all things necessary to salvation
are (after aU these difSculties, and qualifications to their
right understanding) plain in Scripture,^ it is not meant
as if all were evident by the plain and literal words of
the text only, which is necessary for every Christian to
believe, without any other help ; or that an extraordi-
nary spirit directed, without first believing all things ne-
cessary to salvation ; but that there is any danger in not
conceiving alike of aU things in Scripture ; but the not
believing all things true from its Author. Since there are
many things in Scripture, which are not Articles of Faith ;
and though it be necessary to salvation to believe all

' As from these texts : Deut., iv., 2, 29 ; Kev., xi., 18, 19 ; Gal.
i., 8, 9; John, xx., 30, 31 ; Ps., xix., cxix.; Isa., lix., 12, 13; Jer.,
xxxi., 32 ; Matt., xi., 28, 29 ; John, i., 14, &c. Besides that famous
passage of the Father : In eis qus apertfe in Scripturis posita sunt,
inveniuntur ilia omnia, quse continent fldem, mores vivendi- as
intending and persuading to sanctify of life. (Aug. De Doct. Christ,
ii., c. 9.) And so, in St. Chrysostom. Hom., iii., ad 11. Thess.

THE TKUE RELIGION. 433

that the Scripture says, to be true, yet it is not neces-
sary to know all the Scripture contains. Origen (in
Levit., Horn., 5) shows, that some things there are in
Scripture, reserved to the knowledge of God alone:
nay, says Irenjeus (ii., 47) even for the world to come,
that men may always learn, and God may teach. In
the mean time, true believers have the Spirit of God,
by which they try and examine what things and inter-
pretations agree with, or dissent from, the common
Christianity.

This is the Unction from above mentioned by St.
John, not because the gifts of the Holy Ghost impart a
promise of understanding all truths, but because it sup-
poses the knowledge of what is necessary to salvation,
namely, the common Christianity. That extraordinary
grace which the Apostles had of expounding Scripture,
and which Justin Martyr^ affirms, continued in the
Church to his time, was imparted on consideration of
their professing the faith of Christ ; and tended only
to discover those grounds, on which the Church still
proceeds, in the use of ordinary reason, to expound the
Word, that is, besides the letter of the text, the uni-
versal consent of the Church. Thus the author^ of the
Gommonitorium confesses the Canon of Scripture to be
every way perfect, and sufficient, with the tradition of
the Church, for the understanding of it. And yet,
though a man may be obliged to believe that which i?
not in the Scripture to have been instituted even by
the Apostles, yet he is not obliged to observe it, but
upon that reason which Scripture delivers. Xor is it
necessary, as some pretend of late, that we have express
' Dialog. Tryph. ' Vincent. Lyrinensis.

VOL. I. ^ ^

434 THE TRUE RELIGION.

Scripture for every thing we do or speak,' but that the
reason of all we do and say be derived from the doc-
trine which the Scripture declares. All is plain in
Scripture, supposing the rule of faith received from the
Church to limit the sense and exposition of it ; as in
the Doctrine of the Trinity, Christ's Real Presence in
the Sacrament, &c. We must carry ever the faith of
the Church with us, and then we cannot err. Scriptures
are hidden to them, who neglect this rule ; whence that
of Origen :^ " the ignorant profit by reading Scripture,
after they are initiated, catechized, and instructed in
the faith beforehand ;" for so they were at baptism.

There is nothing necessary to salvation in Scrip-
ture, but what may be manifest by the use and
application of such means as the Scripture directs ;
for, otherwise, that which should dissolve all doubts
ought itself to be most clear, which we see it is not;
nor were all the Scriptures written when St. Paul'
alleged that, being inspired by God, it was profitable to
qualify the man of God to preach Christianity to
others ; divers parts of the New Testament being not then
penned ; and St. John anathematizes those who should
falsify or corrupt any part of the Scripture or the sense
of it. But the Apostle's meaning was, that there was
in the Old Testament then extant what shadowed and
typified the New, the right understanding whereof
directed to the understanding of the Gospel ; and, con-
sequently, furnishing the man of Grod to propagate it.
And thus did our Blessed Savour mean, when he

' Omne quod loquimur, debemus affirraare ex Scripturis Sanc-
tis. St. Jerome, in Psal. 98.

* Contra Celsum. = 11. Tim., iii., 16, 17.

THE TEUE RELIGION. 435

opened the understandings of His disciples, (after his
resurrection) that they might comprehend the Scrip-
tures ; and by these books did the Bereans compare and
examine the doctrine they taught.

It is certainly sufEcient, and of God's infinite good-
ness, says the learned Thorndyke, and agreeable to
those means whereby He convinces the world of the
truth of that religion we contend for, that He gives
those whom it concerns such means to discern the truth
of things as, being rightly applied, are of themselves
enough to create a resolution as certain as the weight
of any controversy shall require. For such is the
Scripture, containing the sense of it, within those
bounds, which the rule of faith and the laws given the
Church by our Lord and His Apostles do hmit. For
what is plainer than to discern what the whole body of
the Church has agreed in ? what not ? "What is mani-
festly consequent to the same ? what not ? What is
agreeable to the ground and end of those laws, which
the Church first received from our Lord and His
Apostles ? what not ?

That no interpretation of the Scriptures, repugnant
to the consent of the Fathers, ought to be alleged, is a
prudent injunction, which, had it been observed (I
mean, the Fathers of the five first centuries) well had
it been for all the Church and the Christian world ; the
infallibility pretended by the present Roman, and tra-
ditions of the Universal Church being infinitely wide
and inconsistent with Scripture ; as, on the other side,
the trying by Scripture alone, without bringing the
consent of all the Catholic Church into consequence.
"Witness the Socinian.

TT T? 2

436 THE TRUE RELIGION.

With these directions, cautions, and limitations, are
the Scriptures truly self-sufficient,^ (as St. Athanasius
calls them) as to necessaries to salvation, not as always
needing all those helps, but corroborated by them. For,
as to the rules of faith, what can Fathers, what Coun-
cils do, or any other aid, than determine that, expressly
and distinctly, which has been simply held and asserted
from the beginning ?

2. RULE OF FAITH.

Now the principal end of man being his eternal fell-
city, and, consequently, to know and rightly understand
the proper means to attain that end, infinitely it con-
cerns us to inquire it out. And, though all Christians
acknowledge that the law and service of the Almighty
God, laid down and revealed in Scripture, is that means;
yet are many learned and other zealous men not agreed
how to understand and interpret it, pai-tly through
pride of their own opinion and other human prejudices;^
I say, these prejudices and disagreements cast away
many holy and excellent persons in great difficulties
and doubts, to the great disturbance of the world, and
ruin of one of the most necessary graces — Christian
Charity.

To come to a steady resolution, then, and acquiescency
in this particular, after all we have liitherto said, and
with which we shall conclude this tedious thouo-h im-
portant Chapter, wiU best be done, by inquiring, once

* AirapKcis. Orat. ad Gent.

' An instance of this we have in Maldonat, (a Spanish Jesuit)
■who, though highly apnroving an explanation, confessed indeed it
was the very best, but, because it was Calvin's, he would reject it.

THE TKUE RELIGION. 437

for all, wMch is the Rule of Faith, and whether there is
any more moral certitude of such a thing. By Rule
of Faith, we mean all the Articles or Doctrines of the
Christian Faith, necessary to salvation.

Papists will have it in a General Council, confirmed
by the Pope, defining what the rule is ; some in the
Council alone, some in the Pope ; some in oral tradition,
or living voice of the Church: all these without de-
pendance on Scripture. Further, that, this being the
ground and foundation, these are the interpreters and
definers to conclude and declare the meaning and sense
of the infallibility, by promise of the Holy Ghost's
assistance.

To this we find, in the first place, that a General
Council confirmed by Popes have erred in faith ; there-
fore, that cannot be the Rule of Faith ; for Popes have
been heretics, and have taught heresy, by Papists' own
confession, Gratian, Gerson, and BeUarmine himself.
Now, though some affirm that the Pope cannot err as
universal pastor, yet we know he can, and has erred ;
and the Cathohc Church was confirmed in all neces-
sary truths, hundreds of years before any General
Council was.

To the second: That a free General Council, without
the Pope, by their skill in theology and scholastical
learning, may define this rule without erring is uncer-
tain ; because still they can, by all they know, only do
their best endeavour, there being no certain evident
revelation that they are in the right, farther than pro-
bability. For though the Holy Spirit's assistance is
promised in the due use of the means, yet, unless they
certainly know they have rightly made use of that

438 THE TKUE EELIGIOIf.

means, they cannot be infallible. Now, to know that is
impossible, unless the means made use of do evidently
discover it, for whatever is not the pure word is fal-
lacious.

To the third : Oral tradition, which Papists aflRrm to
have been ever the same, down to our age, without in-
terruption, so that these, finding the infirmity of the
two former, buUd on this as the surest footing. This
is but a late assertion, and therefore cannot be the rule,
seeing it was not always so believed so to be, but one
of the two above, and therefore had interruption, as in
the Arian heresy. The Council of Trent also did not
rely upon it,' wherein saintly and apostolical tradition are
contradistinguished. And, besides, it is known abun-
dantly, divers of the new articles of faith, purgatory,
transubstantiation, &c., had their beginning but of late,
and were not delivered as such articles. So that, after
all, the Rule of Faith is certainly the Holy Scripture
only, as being clear in all things necessary to all illumi-
nated Christians. Others there be who hold that all
these truths are e^adent to every understanding; so that,
according to both. Holy Scripture is stiU the rule.

Now, the former made use of tradition as historically
asserting them to be the Books of Scripture, not upon
account of tradition, but for its own cause, safe light,
and spirituality. The enthusiasts hold Divine inspira-
tion their guide for interpreting them ; others, the light
within them, as independent of Scripture, and so pre-
tend what they please, but without any miracle to
confirm it, as the Apostles had: so that these new
guides cannot exclude a former established Divine law,
' Decree I, Sess. 4.

THE TRUE RELIGION. 439

as did our Blessed Saviour, when he abrogated that
of Moses.

As to those who affirm the rule and necessiiry funda-
mentals of faith evident to every understanding ex-
plicitly, it is very unlikely that mechanics, labourers,
women, &c., though they can read, should arrive at it
without the Church's sense ; since, if otherwise, many
heresies would be maintained by Scripture. Some,
then, were undoubtedly entrusted to show their mean-
ing, weigh the circumstances of every place, compare
places, distinguish what are most material truths, and
what opposite, and thence to draw inferences.

The result of all appears, then, to be this : the Church
Catholic diffusive cannot err in fundamentals ; but she
cannot immediately declare her thoughts to every par-
ticular individual member, as to what she holds points
of Faith, deducible from Scripture ; but, by employing
her pastors and ministers, either by letter, writing, or
votes in council, to make it known to every person.
Now, such places of Scripture are as plainly to be un-
derstood as they are in any such teaching, writing, or
definition of council ; such may be as certainly learned
out of Scripture as by the traditions of the Church ;
and those traditions and definitions, being compared with
Scripture, appearing plainly to be the meaning, are
then indeed, and not till then, to be embraced as the
true meaning.

If oral tradition can be made plain to be truth by
parallel texts of Scripture, tradition in that case is
good. But, when no testimonies aver the same thing,
if one be of divine, the other of human authority, the
former ought to have pre-eminence. Seeing, then, the

440 THE TKUE EELIGIOK.

testimony of Scripture is divine (as being confessed the
Word of God), and tradition but human, as delivered in
various expressions of pastors, parents, tutors, masters
of families, nurses, &c., it is most reasonable Faith
should be resolved into Scripture, as its rule, and not
tradition. Nay, though tradition may, perhaps, in some
things be thought more plain than Scripture (as in ex-
plaining that of Christ's Divinity in the NIcene Creed),
yet should Scripture stUl be esteemed the text, and
tradition but its best cormnent. And so, doubtless,
the disciples of the Apostles, after the New Testament
was published, did confirm what they had been taught
orally by the Apostles, out of the Written Word;
because the sayings of Christ himself and divinely
inspired Apostles must needs be thought of greater
authority than their own, though beUeved ever so cer-
tainly true by those they taught.

From all these premises we then conclude, the Holy
Scripture, that is, such places as contain necessary
points for belief and practice, is the true and only true
Rule of Faith ; yet so as that, without the help of tra-
dition, it cannot be known to be the Word of God un-
corrupt ; nor those necessarily manifest so to be, with-
out a continued miracle and immediate revelation.
For, were it otherwise, every body would have under-
stood it, and held it, even before the Scripture was
written in the several languages of the people, who yet
became good Christians. Nor could ignorant and un-
lettered persons read, and know assuredly it was rightly
translated and uncorrupt, nor have judgment to select
and cull out those which were fundamental from other
texts less necessary. Wherefore, of necessity, they

THE TRUE RELIGION. 441

must fly to and trust other men qualified, namely, to
the Ecclesia Docens, which are the Bishops, pastors,
g,nd spiritual guides, to whom the Depositum is entrusted,
yet not but that the laity may and must search the
Scriptures, to encourage and edify, so as they oppose
not their judgment to that of their teachers, whose
office and calling it is, and who have studied all those
qualifications required to fit them, and are called to the
, unction by mission successively derived from Christ
and His Apostles, and are acquainted with whatever
has all along been the faith of the Christian Church to
this day ; especially considering that God has, in the
economy of the world, provided and placed men, skilled
and expert in several things, without which all would
turn to disorder and confusion. Wherefore, we con-
clude, with St. Augustine,' Scriptura doctrinw nostroe
regulam figit ; or that, rather, of its Blessed Author :
" This is my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased :
hear ye Him." ^

Thus have we all that a rational man can modestly,
or even immodestly, require for the truth that any his-
tory is capable of, both internally, from the nature of
credibihty and sensibility of the objects, knowledge, and
integrity of the writers, eye-witnesses ; the way, man-
ner, and style of writing ; and, externally, from its re^
ception and entertainment in the world, universal con-
sent and concurrence, and that even of strangers as
others; nay, even the confessions of adversaries, the
testimony of prophecies, miracles, preservation, har-
mony, sublime matter and effects ; antiquity, tradition,
and all those other topics we have produced. These
' De bono Viduitatis. ' See Matt., xvii., 5.

442 THE TRUE RELIGION.

have asserted the books, copies, versions, and inter-
pretations of Holy Scripture to be the Word of God,
and derivable from it ; I say, so asserted, as no other
history in the world has ever showed the like, to jus-
tify any matter of fact whatsoever. The sum, then, of
all this is, that God would have the mysteries of our
salvation and holy faith conveyed to us by writing,
after the Apostles had now immediately preached them ;
and both these in a time when they could not be sup-
posed to be corrupted, whilst they were received by
infinite numbers of proselytes ; cited by a cloud of wit-
nessess, learned Fathers, and Doctors ; preserved in a
thousand places, wherever the persecutions had driven
the professors. They write, as they speak, with all
plainness ; and the Greek version was known and used
by aU, without criticizing, or defect found, or blamed
by the Apostles, nay, or by our Blessed Saviour him-
self; they having more regard to what the Scripture
taught and proved, than to the placing of words or
manner of expression. And it is a mercy and signal
Providence that, for all those cavils and pretences that
difficult men contend so much about, there are so few
to the number of the places which contain the funda^
mental truths and rules necessary to salvation. They
left, in the mean time, the composing of the canon to
their disciples, not as containing perhaps all that the
Apostles might write, but as much as was necessary ;
and, for the various readings, it is apparent they change
nothing material to its prejudice ; the substance of our
religion and rule of faith being so eifectually twisted
and interwoven, through all the Sacred Volumes, as is
sufficient to characterize them the pure and undoubted

THE TRUE RELIGION. 443

word of God ; and that, above all other writings, they
are to sanctify the hearts of those who meditate on
them, and to dispose us to all manner of virtue and
holy living.

It is not, therefore, from the decrees of Popes and
determination of Councils, or the dictate of private
spirits, (with the enthusiasts) or interpretations, nor
the laws and edicts of Princes (which our Esprits forts,
mere pretenders to reason and philosophy, would main-
tain, and are the engines by which sectaries have pre-
vailed, to impose upon the world, both in former days
and now of late in ours) whereby the Scriptures are
proved to be the only truth divinely inspired, and to be
embraced ; but by the force and cogency of the reasons
and arguments we have alleged, accompanied with the
most authentic human testimony that was ever yet
produced, which compels us to assent that the Canonical
Books of Scripture are the undoubted Oracles of God ;
the pillar and ground of our faith.'

It was, therefore, most highly important and needful
to weigh and well consider this matter; since upon
this ground and pillar the whole superstructure stands ;
and upon the streugth of which we adventure the
eternal interest of our most precious souls.

' I. Tim., iii., 15.

END OF VOL. I.

F. Shoberl, Jun.j Printer to H.R.H. Prince Albert, Bnpert Street, Elaymarket.